What Looks Like a Dream
by butterfly collective
Summary: Alexis takes runaway bride to a new level when Julian busts up her latest wedding but will she work with him on the run to find the truth behind a hit? Just borrowing characters and having fun straying from the show a bit. If I ever update, I'll smash a few unfortunate and unwritten GH tropes to bits.
1. Chapter 1

It rushed into the church, the figure dressed in black and wearing a baseball cap. In front, the pews on both sides of the aisle had been filled with elegantly dressed men and women sitting there, several fanning their faces with their programs because it had been quite warm inside, what with the wedding of the month being held on a midsummer night.

She looked down the aisle where the couple stood at the end, the bride dressed in white, with cascading train that most likely had its own attendant and the veil ornamented by beads of diamonds. The groom dressed simply in a black tux, the jacket covering his muscular build.

A minister stood before the couple, thumbing through the Bible which lay on a podium in front of them. His brow intent on finding just the right passage to send the two of them into marital bliss.

Or barring that marital contentment.

The figure at the other hand put its hand on its hip, just watching the ceremony get rolling. The procession had likely been very lovely, the bridesmaids dressed in soft lavender carrying bouquets, the two little flower girls who stood there with their baskets looking aimlessly towards the audience.

The organist quit playing the march and the minister with his stoll around him cleared his throat.

"All right everyone…we are gathered here today to celebrate the entrance of these two individuals into the holiness of matrimony."

The figure watched and sighed, there wasn't anything holy about this proposed merger disguised as matrimony. And one of the parties entering into it was about to make a terrible mistake.

One that was about one minute away from being rectified, as the figure looked at its watch.

Julian just stood there dressed in his penguin suit in front of a crowded church filled with people, some of which he knew, many he didn't as the minister prepared to begun the ceremony. He looked over at his bride who stood there waiting coolly, her icy blonde hair coiffed neatly above the nape of her neck and a diamond necklace bordered by sapphires around her neck. The dress had been tailored by Vera Wang based on a design which had been passed along by her mother from her own ceremony and she wore the engagement ring that Julian had given her when he had proposed after their whirlwind courtship of a month since they'd hooked up in one of the suites of the Metro Court for reasons he still didn't quite understand.

Well except for his business associate Ava of course who was not standing beside him at the altar and in fact, had decided not to even sit in the audience of his wedding. A big deal because it actually looked like he was getting married this time.

She had stood before him earlier in the week, her hand on her hip and rolling her eyes at him.

"I can't believe this Julian…you're marrying a woman you've known what…a few months? Though that's quite an improvement on the one night stand in the back seat of the car woman, this is Carly we're talking about here.

"Ava I would really like it if you would support me here."

She sighed, running her hand through her crisp bob of hair, that looked a lot like…Carly's and when she looked back up at him, her icy blue eyes almost looked weary underneath all that fire.

"I…can't…this woman is not who you think she is," she said, "though that might not matter to you…maybe it's this aura of mystery…no Carly has none…she's one step up from trailer trash. Dressed up of course in designer threads but still…"

He sighed.

"I know her enough to know I want to marry her."

She just shook her head.

"Okay…fine…then marry her," she said, "but I'm not going to sit in some church and watch this train wreck…I'll be…away and hoping that somehow you'll come to your senses. Olivia was the one you were supposed to seduce you know the one that's actually bedding Sonny right now?"

Julian remembered that she had been angry but he realized she had also been concerned and why was that? Carly was a beautiful lady who had been suspicious of him from the start and he'd been suspicious of her so they'd fallen into bed with each other to figure out who was who on the canvas of PC's mobster scene. It's not the first time he'd used sex as a diversionary tactic. Okay there weren't any major sparks between them but they were certainly compatible. Marrying Carly fit in with some sort of master plan didn't it?

And then with one look Ava had walked out on him and hadn't been seen since.

That had bothered him a lot that his sister couldn't stand by him on the most important day of his life. Carly had been trying to get Julian to finance her hotel and the art gallery she'd just bought and Julian had agreed to look at it after they returned from their honeymoon.

Now he stood here at the altar scarcely believing it, trying to restrain himself from pulling on his tie and from thinking about another woman who had walked away from him.

The figure crept up the side aisle without being seen because everyone's attention remained focused on the ceremony which had just gotten started. Suddenly, it reached into its bag that it had slung over the shoulder after it walked fairly close to the front. It looked around while palming a round device that had been activated with a simple flick of a small switch.

Then the time began to count down.

"Mr. Jerome…do you take this woman here to be your lawfully…"

The round object went flying in the air after the figure tossed it and hit the cobbled floor with a clatter. Eyes focused on it, puzzled at first as it hissed on the ground and then…BOOOM, a cloud of thick smoke shrouded the front part of the church and another object of similar size landed nearby and did the same, sending more smoke and the guests began to wonder if it wasn't a good time to vacate the church.

Julian stared out in the smoke after shielding his bride who looked awfully piqued at what had happened.

"Julian…what is this?"

He seriously didn't know so he couldn't really answer. Could this be some kind of organized hit involving Sonny's family, the Rivera branch for example who had shown up with all their Rolls Royce and were clearly packing when they had attended the wedding rehearsal last night. It could also be the Vegas group who had been trying to resist an overthrow by the Miami group of their gambling operations before being bailed out by him. They had it in with Sonny and maybe his Mafia molls by extension. He hadn't really been knowing what he had chosen to marry into because he had been so caught up in the haze of proposing to Carly because it just made so much sense that they get married. Or it had but now…it puzzled him. No matter, he just had to go through with it…because for some reason.

But a figure came toward him just when he had stood up again, wondering why he hadn't worn his own gun. Yeah it was his wedding day but you would think he would have learned over what had happened when he attended the wedding of another family dom where a shootout had broken out once the wedding party left the church. The figure looked into his eyes, its hair hidden by the baseball cap and something familiar…never mind what did this person want with him?

"Come with me…"

"But you just threw a bunch of stun grenades…"

It shrugged.

"They won't hurt anyone, they're just noisy and the smoke's pretty noxious."

The minister had begun calling for calm in the chaotic environment but no one really listened and people started panicking pushing out of the pews into the narrow aisles. Julian guessed the wedding was off for now. Dante, PC's only cop had been sitting out in the audience and had remained unperturbed by the uproar, but Julian caught a trace of what looked like relief on his face beneath his no nonsense demeanor. What was it with those who were close to him that they all seemed to be against this marriage? But he was a grown man and he could make his own decisions.

"Why should I go with you?"

The figure pulled out another stun grenade.

"Because I have one left and I have half the mind to stuff it down your pants."

He looked perplexed.

"What the…"

The figure gestured, its svelte build looked wait a minute here…female? No doubt about it, and Julian thought a profile view would clinch it.

"Julian…"

That would be his bride who still lay on the ground wondering why her wedding day had gone up in smoke. Julian didn't know that either but maybe there was one way to find out.

He put up his hands.

"Okay, okay…I'll go with you," he said, "Just don't hurt anyone."

The figure tilted her head.

"No one's hurt here…and now one person won't be."

Hmm, that sounded a bit enigmatic to Julian but he finally followed the figure as they weaved their way through the throngs which still packed the twin aisles. They headed through the alcove in the back and then out the double doors, into the warmness of night.

"Get in the car," the figure said as they reached a convertible.

He turned to face her.

"No…and who the hell are you anyway?"

The figure just shook her head and looked at him seriously.

"Those men in the audience are not who you think," she said, "They're after your company…"

"What…"

"No time to explain now," she said, "Just get into the car and I'll tell you later."

Julian grabbed her arm.

"You'll tell me now."

The figure wrenched her arm away.

"Don't…I'm saving your ass here and it will become clear enough to you soon. Marrying Carly I should have let them shoot it off of you."

Julian just stood there suddenly speechless.

"But my fiancée…"

"Has a role to play in the script too…now get in the car."

He finally did, sitting shotgun while the figure got on the driver's side and started up the engine which screamed to life. She looked over and saw men coming out with guns drawn.

They sped away just as the men reached the car and Julian braced for the gunshots which thankfully didn't come. They raced down the city streets until they reached a bluff over a sandy beach where the glistening water caressed the edges of the shore. They just sat in the car looking out there and Julian didn't know what to think and he looked over at the figure which sat there with him, dressed in black jeans, a sweater and a jacket. Mahogany hair began to slip from beneath the cap betraying the figure's identity and recognition struck him.

"I know you…"

The figure removed her hat and the hair fell around her shoulders and her mouth curved into a smile.

"Of course you do…you've always known…"

Julian found himself looking at the mother of his daughter, Alexis Davis.

They hid out in a beach house that she had broken into with a credit card like Luke Spencer had taught her because he knew that the Rivera's not to mention Sonny's crew would come after them for what just happened. Maybe Ava had seen this coming and just decided to get her nails done instead of deal with another bloody mess.

"I had no idea…"

She rolled her eyes at him again.

"That's because you men don't always think with your brains Julian."

He frowned, tearing off that hated tie.

"That's not fair…"

She sighed as she looked out the windows.

"Okay, you met up with her at the hotel and then jumped in the sack with her because hey, she's Carly after all and no man can resist her brand of poison but marrying her…"

"That's not quite how it went," Julian said, "We spent some time at the Waterfront first."

Alexis looked at him.

"Yeah right…well I'm here just to save your mobster ass and after that…you're on your own."

"So you back together with Shawn?"

"Shawn who?"

He thought, he could be married now and leaving the church with Carly and people throwing rice at them. People who could pretend to be happy for them. Marriage had been in the cards for him at this point in his plan and it had to be Carly or Olivia, someone close to Sonny.

Not the woman in front of him that had told him that day her relationship with Sonny had been complicated but only a one night stand. He'd been relieved for two reasons and disappointed for one. But he had his game plan to follow to the letter, though his heart hadn't been in it. Not even during the rehearsal dinner when Sonny had shown up breaking the Faberge eggs on the shelves of the dining room in a jealous rant. Olivia and some woman named Brenda had trailed him apologizing profusely for his antics.

He woke up that morning wishing he could stay in bed and not get married but he forced himself up anyway. Got into his tuxedo…met with his best men Michael and Morgan who'd gotten in a fist fight after getting out of their respective limos. It all looked like it'd proceed as they prepared to say their vows.

Only he hadn't been able to get there, not if this woman had to burst into some church like some Ninja something lobbing smoke bombs to get him out of there.

Julian just stared at her, sitting there on the edge of the king sized bed with the 500 thread sheets underneath, dressed in a form fitting outfit meant to conceal her in the shadows and wearing an irritated expression on her face.

"Julian…that family of your friend, the Riveras you sent after Sonny…when I went to set things straight with one of your future brother in laws, he threatened not so nicely to put a bomb in my car."

"A what?"

"You heard me…a bomb in my car…is that what you really want, to marry a woman who might rock your boots off and then have a bunch of mobsters making threats? I might not be the love of your life like Sonny's leftovers in that church but I'm the mother of your daughter who's spent some time on the wrong side of the interrogation table at PCPD myself."

Julian's heart plunged at that revelation, that anyone would threaten to harm the woman…well the woman who was very important to him in all ways but one…and that had been through a mutually agreed upon decision.

"Alexis, Carly, she didn't really rock my boots," he said, "This is business that even I don't quite understand. Carly…I…no sparks there not like you and me but this was my marching orders."

Now Alexis looked at him dumbfounded.

"Then why did you want to marry her then? You don't have sparks with her though those are highly overrated. Did you marry her just to hurt Sonny? Or did you marry her when the other woman you wanted to use Sonny, Olivia turned you down?"

Julian struggled in his mind to find the answers but now they proved to be somewhat more elusive than they had been even yesterday.

"I don't…"

"Of course you don't…because you didn't think it through first," she said, shaking her head, "and because guys like you always go for women like…well maybe Olivia had one of her visions warning her all about you that only she can understand."

He held up his hand.

"Wait a minute here, why are you telling me what I like…and assume there's a type of woman?"

She shrugged.

"Because I've watched you and you always go for the women who are young, vapid but women that every guy including bad guys gravitate to when coming to PC. I guess they should bottle what Carly has and sell it. Olivia? I never took you to be interested in hysterical co-dependent women so that one's lost on me."

Julian really hadn't noticed amid the explosions and mayhem earlier but he did now that Alexis looked especially lovely in form fitting black. The woman had a figure that had muscle but also curved in some really nice places. Wait a minute, what was going on here, he had just been standing at the altar with someone who Alexis had just described as a mafia moll and he…well he wasn't thinking of her right now.

"You really need to…where are you right now…"

Because he had appeared to be in a daze, oh well maybe some of the smoke from those grenades had gotten to him. The instructions had said they were harmless but maybe…

"Why are you looking at me like that?"

Soft music began to play in the background from where, he had no idea and the room had become bathed in luminance.

"Julian…"

He walked over to her and pulled her off from where she sat on the bed, into his arms, wrapping them around her waist.

"What…is this…"

His eyes bore directly into her own.

"What does it look like," he said, before his lips swept over hers and he ran his hands through that luscious mane of hair he had wanted to touch…well for the past six months at least…strange how something had changed, the room, the lighting and his focus. His hands left her hair and ran down her body where the fabric hugged her frame. She sighed and then she let him explore her mouth with her own…just a second ago she had been fed up with him and now…well obviously not.

"It's you I want…."

She blinked as he swept her off of her feet and carried her.

"Julian, this makes no sense…is this real or is this a dream?"

Julian didn't care at that point as he moved them closer to the bed…but yeah it did seem a bit funny that he had been standing at the altar with someone else and now…

"We'll make it real…"

Okay, she thought, that works for me as she wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him again.

Then the squeal of tires outside the beach house interrupted them and he hastily put her down when they heard voices and footsteps loudly just outside.

"Julian…they found us."

His heart beat quickly as he looked around for a place to hide but suddenly, gunshots rang out and the glass from windows splintered and exploded towards them, showering them with a fine mist of ground sand.

"We can't just stand here…"

So they collapsed behind the bed, while bullets flew around them.

"Maybe they'll go away," he said, but wondered if that were true.

"Julian…"

Her breath had become jagged and he gazed down and his eyes widened as he saw a stain widening on her shirt, one shade darker than its material. Julian put his hand on it and it felt damp, his fingers laced with blood when he removed them.

His heart froze as he realized what had been happen…the bullets kept coming like crescendos in his ears…the blood streamed down his fingers onto the carpet. Her face became ashen, draining of its life and her eyes fluttered.

"Nooooo…."

But no one could hear him over the whistling of bullets and the pounding of the walls getting struck and penetrated by multiple rounds. Suddenly, as he embraced the woman in his arms, the colors began to blur and fade and whirl around him, again and again and again.

And then the darkness of the room around him.

* * *

Julian found himself drenched in sweat in the bed of the Metro Court that he had been staying because he hadn't bought his own bachelor pad yet. What plan to put in action for the tomorrows that had just become today.

He gazed over at the wedding announcement, the ceremony that was going to take place today between the woman who meant everything to him and the man that had swept her off of her feet a month…again earlier…the man who Julian knew was not what he appeared to be.

If he had only responded when she had told him she loved him…that yes she did want to be a family with him despite finally learning the truth about what had happened with that young boy on a cold winter night in New Hampshire a long time ago.

As that thought hit him, he got out of bed to get ready to get going, to get to the church in time. Looking at his watch, he could see time was not on his side but he had the most important act of his life to take.

He had a wedding to stop.


	2. Chapter 2

Julian jumped into his Porsche, the dream still lingering inside of his head. Imagine him, dreaming that Alexis had decked herself in some dark but figure hugging clothes to spring him from his own wedding.

Funny how a person could dream something that was a complete reversal of reality. That being it had been the mother of his daughter who was scheduled to get married today to Shawn Butler the so-called manager of Kelly's Diner who had more than just ties into organized crime. He was Sonny Corinthos number one enforcer though he'd never been much good at it.

The man couldn't hit a target from 10 feet out, standing still. If he'd been in the Jerome organization, he would have found up at the bottom of the harbor near Pier 51 with a bullet hole in his heart. Especially after yet another one of his hits went wrong and he'd nearly taken out Alexis' daughter, Molly not to mention his own foster son.

Alexis had walked away from him once when she'd found out he'd fired and missed at that crazy artist turned serial killer and back again Franco leaving someone else to nearly take out Olivia.

She'd gone back to him after all the whole mob war blew up around all of them and Shawn had told her that all the violence including that against the teens at his son's disco party had been caused by the Jerome organization. They hadn't been the targets but that's what happened when you let amateurs or incompetents take out your competition. Anna the commissioner and Dante, the entire police department hadn't contested that assertion…though Alexis did think that the only active police officer being a son of one of the players in the mobsters' war should constitute a conflict of interest.

Shawn had surfaced a month ago claiming to be a brand new man eschewing La Familia and all the violence around that way of life. As if he were someone else inside the same body even dressing differently.

Oh Alexis hadn't known everything about her groom that when they had been engaged in a whirlwind courtship during a holiday in New York City but Julian had discovered this when he had run the obligatory and every extensive background check on her future husband. Shawn had been in the military and shot T.J.'s father by mistake, he'd been treated for PTSD but even before being a hired mercenary, he'd been suspected of committing numerous atrocities during his military stint.

Nothing that could be proven but it seemed to Julian that he'd been discharged from the military rather abruptly. His files that would shed some light on the issue, buried in confidentiality regulations and red tape.

He hadn't told her this because he knew she'd turned her back on him, wouldn't be receptive of anything she had to say. She would tell him pot calling kettle black but in the case of Shawn, the man had no honor.

The guy was a stone cold sociopath tied to a string of hits throughout towns around Lake Ontario, some possibly at the same time that he had been romancing Alexis both the first and second times. That's what his sophisticated computer software had told him that he'd hired a Damian Spinelli to decipher and play with. Sam had recommended him as her partner in their investigative agency and she'd done some recognizance as well now that Danny was fully recovered.

The problem was, how would he now explain this to Alexis? After all, she was now preparing to walk down the aisle at a plush estate overlooking the Atlantic Ocean up near a town called Crystal Cove. Sonny Corinthos had property there that he'd loaned Shawn for the wedding. He'd been much more coherent after his month's long stint at Fern cliff being treated for his nervous breakdown.

He looked at his watch, which showed that he had just a few hours to make it before she exchanged vows with Shawn. If traffic cooperated, he might jet there in half the normal time so he kicked his sports car into gear and turned onto the coastal highway.

Sure enough the traffic was light in the direction he headed and he merged into the fast lane.

* * *

Alexis looked in the mirror dressed in her slip, which accented her tanned shoulders. She had woken up that morning alone in the suite because Shawn had told her the previous night he had some business to attend to, but would be finished in plenty of time to get ready for their wedding. She fingered her engagement ring which was a diamond set amid sapphires, very elegant. It hadn't been on her finger long at all, about two weeks when he had proposed to her while they picnicked on the beach just outside of PC.

Julian hadn't been in town when Alexis and Shawn had returned as an engaged couple. He had been working on buying into some casino action near the Canadian border and well, she and Shawn just couldn't wait to get married it appeared. They would start with a simple ceremony and then in a month or two would hold a more public reception back in PC when things settled down there.

Then they live together as man and wife raising their combined family while Shawn managed Kelly's and no doubt stuck to his primary source of income. If Alexis believed he'd ever give that up, she'd be dead wrong. A man like Shawn had lived by the gun and killed by it. Any day he could die by it too leaving her a widow. The flow of cash, the adrenalin rush, it'd clearly become an addiction to him. That's what one side of her brain told her but the other side…told her that if he promised to give it up all for her and their family that she should believe him.

Alexis always had wanted to build a larger house on Lake Ontario and at first, Shawn hadn't seemed as enthused but he had warmed on the issue so much in the past week. Sam had expressed interest in taking over the lake house for Danny, Rafe and maybe Silas if things continued to progress well on that front.

Shawn had told her that he just wouldn't be around that much. That he had to travel on work for weeks at a time and that he might have to leave on an assignment at a moment's notice…in his new importing job while he hired management to run Kelly's. She had been so into starting over with him that she hadn't really cared at the time that he might not be there much leaving her an empty house.

Someone knocked on the door and Alexis knew it was Carly, who'd be part of her wedding party given how close Shawn was with Sonny. She knew Carly didn't approve of her marrying Shawn thinking she'd never be able to keep him happy…in certain areas. Alexis didn't give a crap, she just wondered why she wasn't hanging around Julian so much.

Then she remembered she wasn't supposed to think about him anymore…certainly not on her wedding day.

"Are you getting ready," Carly asked.

Alexis still stood before the mirror.

"Not quite yet," she said, "I've got the dress out and ready but there's still time."

The other woman dressed in her bridesmaid outfit, a peace gown with puffy sleeves didn't hide her pout.

"If I didn't know better, I would think you're dragging your feet here on marrying my best friend."

Alexis frowned.

"I thought Jason was your best friend."

Carly waved her hand.

"He was…but you know what I mean."

Yes, Alexis did, Carly changed her BFFs forever on a monthly basis. After all, she'd been tight with Felix the GH nurse for a spell and now it was, Felix who? Even Franco…well Alexis didn't even want to go there. He ever set foot in her company she might have to go Natasha on him for what he did to her daughter Sam. You just didn't mess with her girls and get away with it.

She'd wished Carly felt the same about Franco considering what he did to her oldest son Michael but sometimes Carly treated her children like accessories she could enjoy every once in a while. Sam had taken Michael under her wing like an older sister.

Alexis shook her head, annoyed with her.

"I'm not Carly, I'm sorry you feel that way but no, I'm not bailing out on the wedding…you're just going to have to accept that."

Her scowl told Alexis that wouldn't come easily or freely but she knew that despite her animosity towards her, she did love her latest best friend dearly and would behave herself if only to please him.

"And if I ever find you have a lover on the side, I will bash your head in myself."

Alexis gave her a strange look. Now that was a bit extreme, she thought, she would never cheat on her husband…not even with…her mind lingered on another man, with dark hair and strong features right down to his muscular frame. Throw a chambray shirt and some rugged jeans …and it would start getting warm in here. But when she had walked away from him after the shit hit the fan so to speak, that had been it. She sighed, knowing she'd done what everyone expected her to do but not for those reasons.

And then this golden opportunity arose when Shawn returned in her life as if he'd been waiting in the wings. She had gravitated towards him and he had swept her off of her feet. Their romance if not based on love at least had brought some semblance of stability into her life since their families meshed so well. She had tried to contact Julian and tell him of her plans but he was unreachable, probably off being a mobster somewhere else.

Well, he would know that she had gotten married soon enough when he returned. But for her, marriage would change a lot because she would be rebuilding her life.

She looked over at her dress lying on her bed, creamy white with nice cuffs on the sleeves and a lengthy train. Not exactly her style but Olivia had recommended that he use the designer who had worked on dresses for the brides in hers and Sonny's family.

Then she sat on the bed to think of someone, not her future husband but the man she'd left instead despite her promises to herself to leave that part of her life behind.

* * *

Julian stopped while the elderly man herded his ostriches across the road to the other side. He had heard of the giant birds being raised on farms and harvested for their meat but the sight in front of him made him shake his head. Nothing, not anything, would replace cattle in his mind as a form of succulent meat.

He looked at his watch and figured he had dressed up in the right attire to be unnoticed in the crowd. The "smaller" ceremony advertised on the invite still would involve over 100 guests.

The road finally cleared and Julian wondered if he had lost valuable time to get to the church. But he figured, weddings never started exactly on time did they? His one own experience had been testimony to that…not that it actually lasted very long before being sabotaged by a psychotic killer, one who was fortunately dead now.

He thought back to the desperate actions of Alexis in the dream where she had used of all things, smoke bombs to end his own ill-advised wedding but what would he do to stop hers?

He had packed heat and had used it but he didn't have any other weapons in case those who might oppose his actions might take a shot at him in order to keep the wedding on track.

No matter, he had to stop it because Alexis just couldn't marry this hit man, who had tried to masquerade himself off as an unassuming businessman putting that life behind him. He knew that if he could just find Alexis and talk to her, talk her out of this crazy wedding then she would be safe and they could return back if not to PC which was under a lot of heat now, someplace else. Still he knew that she might not go for any attempts he made to tell her what to do, like not get married to the man she rekindled things with. He ran through all kinds of plans and scenarios in his head minus a few that involved hiring mercenaries to help him in case he could think of one that might work.

After all, he knew it had been his fault, because he hadn't been honest with her for too long and then it'd been too late. He'd wrestled with what to tell her and Sam, lost sleep over it but still didn't owe up to his family when it counted.

He'd been away a while and returned seeing the entire world had changed. A federal task force had arrived in PC including marshals to ensure no more violence affected innocent residents and certainly not the tourists. Mayor Lucy Coe met with Anna, and newly re-elected DA Scotty Baldwin to work with the feds to restore order in the town. So things had quieted down for the past few months and a couple of mobsters who wouldn't be named decided it was past time for vacations.

Alexis had ran off and gotten herself engaged to someone she had barely been seeing again for a month. He had returned to the new reality and then had checked his phone messages and emails for the first time in a while and had found a lot of them asking him how he felt about the big news about the engagement…including from Ava.

What engagement, he had asked himself until his eyes widened when he saw it was indeed true.

He flashed back to seeing Shawn in photos with a capo or two from his pre-PC days on some deep sea fishing trip which probably involved pulling fish out and throwing some bigger ones with cement flippers into the water. Alexis really had no idea who she was marrying today.

He looked at his watch as the time continued to elapse without mercy and pressed the accelerator making the car roar. He had to make it to the church on time and time was running out.

* * *

Alexis wandered back into the suite she shared with her fiancée to find her shoes, the pair she would be wearing for the wedding and that's when she saw the folder on the floor, half hidden beneath the bed.

She pulled it out curious, and opened it before wondering whether she should or not, before she could chastise herself for snooping on her husband. After all she wasn't Carly.

And that's when she saw the photos.


	3. Chapter 3

Alexis's eyes widened when she saw the photos which showed close-ups of two men that she knew had been killed in what were believed to have been accidents…well at least the first one which had been a car that had somehow gone off of a mountain road and wound up two hundred feet down into a ravine. The man that it had taken a day to retrieve back up to the surface had been an accountant who had blown the whistle on money laundering in a company that belonged to Sonny's business partner in Boston.

The other had been killed in some sort of accidental discharge involving his hunting rifle while tracking a 14 point buck in Colorado. He had been a business partner of another man who had some sort of business connection with Sonny.

These incidents has taken place in the past couple of months.

Back then, they hadn't seen like intentional deaths by any means, she had thought when reading about them in the newspaper. She'd mentioned them just several weeks ago with Shawn in passing. He had said they were both tragedies but that accidents often couldn't be anticipated for prevented and then he had moved on to the next subject which had been the house they planned to live in after their wedding or their honeymoon plans.

Now looking at the photos with circles around them, she couldn't ignore the obvious. That photos of men who had died had been kept by him and the circles…they looked like the two men had been some kind of target.

No of course that's what they were Alexis. An icy chill raced through her right now, the pictures still clutched by her trembling fingers. Damn she'd been such a fool once again suckered by the male species.

She ran her hand through her hair as she stood there in her slip, the pictures in her hand before she replaced them where she'd found them. What the hell was she going to do now on her wedding day, try to talk to him and ask what all this meant? How would he take it, after all he couldn't accuse her of being nosy if they were practically laying around.

Then again, if he had something to do about it…no he couldn't... Not Shawn. But her sensible side chided her for even sliding towards denial of the obvious.

Alexis sat on the bed and put her head in her hands, trying to think about what to do, trying not to think that she might have become engaged to another man who wasn't what he appeared.

* * *

Julian drove his car up the winding mountain road up to the estate at the top of it, where the view must be absolutely amazing down onto the fabric of forests intermixed with meadows and a river that wove through them both like a ribbon. He had seen photos of the house and the surrounding grounds in quite a few architecture magazines. As he approached the top, he noticed that a huge tent had been set up out in a grassy area and that men and women dressed in uniforms were bustling around setting up for what had been billed as the wedding of the month.

Huge gates loomed ahead and he knew he had to come up with a plan to get inside. He had never been on the property but he had seen it while conducting surveillance after Sam and Spinelli had given him the aerial photos, so he knew what the spread looked like. He didn't know whether Shawn knew he was back in the area. They didn't exactly move in the same business or social circles lately but he couldn't take any chances so he had brought along a disguise in case he'd alerted any of his security about Julian Jerome. He stopped the car up the road and changed inside it to pose as security; an assignment he felt would get him close enough to Alexis to talk some sense in to her.

He looked down at his black pants and shirt, he had packed a gun that would be similar to those carried by security here and he walked up to the gate where he ran into a young man with a checklist and a rather bored attitude. Julian figured he had been doing this for a while.

"Who are you," the man asked.

"I'm security," Julian said, "Mitchell Radcliffe… …Just let me get my ID."

He pulled out the best fake ID that money could buy and showed it to the man who examined it carefully.

"Your beard, it's different. You don't look much like the photo…Coleman."

Julian nodded.

"I needed a change."

The man finally gave it back to him and waved him through.

"You meet with the rest of the team in the back," he said, "You'll receive your individual assignments there."

He walked inside and didn't go to join the other security men at least not right away. Casing the grounds including the mansion were his first priorities and he wanted to get started, to find the best alternative entrances and exits.

A man leading some Dobermans walked by and Julian noted the amount of security that was present for the wedding, not surprising considering Shawn's real profession. As a hit man, he himself could be the target for revenge as well as for prosecution by law enforcement agencies so he had used a considerable amount of his earnings to shield himself from both threats.

Where was Alexis, he wondered and he figured she must be getting ready for the wedding somewhere in the main house. The walls that surrounded the estate were quite impressive and so where the cameras that were mounted on the house and other spots in the surrounding area. He wondered how Alexis had ever bought into the image of her fiancé as being just a born again businessman but knew that a lot of different emotions could make someone less than suspicious when they should be.

He walked up to the side entrance of the house and looking around him, slipped into a narrow alcove next to it, while he tried the door. It appeared to be locked so he reached into his belt and pulled out a tool perfect for this kind of thing and fiddled with the lock. He managed to get it open and opening the door enough for him to slip inside before anyone noticed.

A winding staircase greeted him and two women walked down it so he ducked against the wall.

"Really Carly I think it's much ado about nothing," Olivia said, "The marriage won't last…his fiancée is Alexis after all…I'm surprised she's made it this far."

Carly who looked perturbed to say the least shook her head.

"No…Shawn's really caught up with her," she said, "To propose to her in the first place after barely a month."

"Well…if I have one of my visions…I'll tell you."

He was surprised that the two main women in Sonny's life were getting along this well.

But he wondered if Alexis would go through with it, then remembered the way she'd reacted to him the last time they saw each other. He thought it'd been something she'd quickly get over.

In reality, it had been much deeper than that and by the time he had realized that it had been too late.

* * *

Alexis still sat on the bed, her dress still waiting to be put on for the wedding. She glanced over at it and then wondered what she had gotten herself into by making the decision to get married so quickly to a man she realized she barely knew at all.

And within a few hours she would be walking down the aisle with bridesmaids including his Carly and Olivia who she had little use for in front of guests who'd probably come for a good show. She'd been determined to go through with it despite her rep as the runaway bride of PC.

But now after seeing those photographs, she just knew she had some questions that had to be asked and only one man could answer them and that would be the man she was about to marry but where was he?

Oh yeah, conducting some last minute business…was he? Even on his wedding day, planning to kill someone else?

How had she fallen in so quickly with a man she'd already dumped?

She got up and looked into the mirror, her hair cascading around her face and wasn't sure what to do next, what if Shawn returned, what would she say to him? They had to set a few things straight before she walked down the aisle.

* * *

Julian walked up the stair case stealthily expecting to run into someone who might question him and hoping his attire would discourage it. But he had his story ready in case anyone challenged him being there in the house. He reached the top of the stairs and started walking and looking into the bedrooms. Most of them were empty but when he reached the one at the end of the hallway, he peered inside and his eyes widened as he saw her standing in front of the mirror running a brush through her hair. That lovely mahogany mane she had that either curled or waved depending on which she liked. She wore a slip which hugged her figure and showed off her lightly muscled arms.

He paused just watching her as she lifted her hair up above her neck where the necklace could be glimpsed before she released her hair again. He chose then to slip inside the room and she gasped as she looked up and saw his reflection behind her, putting her hand to her mouth for a brief second before she spun around and faced him. Not looking the least bit pleased at him. In fact the glint in her eyes know reminded him of her family heritage.

"Julian…what are you doing here…and since when have you had the beard?"

He sighed, noticing she stood her ground and had folded her arms expectedly.

"I could ask you the same thing."'

"I'm getting married in several hours," she said, "to Shawn so you should just leave before he returns."

He paused again, wondering if he should share with her what he knew about her fiancé. Then decided he had to go for it.

"Alexis…it's your fiancé, he's not what he appears to be."

She furrowed her brow.

"Oh…care to elaborate?"

He moved closer to her, trying to keep his mind on what he had to say and off of how beautiful she appeared right then.

"I mean you're really one to talk to Derek…no wait it's Julian right? Julian Jerome."

He listened, knowing he deserved that not saying anything so she continued.

"What can I say…he swept me off my feet?"

He sat down on her bed.

"I don't believe that and neither do you."

She looked at him then more carefully, her eyes penetrating him and they would have intimidated most anyone else.

"Julian…which is what you're going by now," she said, "There's nothing you can say to me."

He didn't respond right away.

"You think he's not the right guy for me is that it because he's not like you?"

"Alexis …"

She shook her head.

"No Julian…You don't get to decide whether or not I'm marrying Shawn," she said, "Certainly not just a couple of hours before I'm walking down the aisle with him at the end of it waiting."

"Where is Shawn anyway?"

She didn't know exactly but she wasn't going to tell him that.

"He's…finishing up some business."

Julian imagined he had some idea what he was doing right now…possibly planning his next hit on his own wedding day.

"Alexis you don't know him as well as you think."

She stepped towards him.

"Excuse me, if there's something you know that I don't, I wish you'd just tell me."

"He's…"

Then they heard footsteps coming down the hall and they looked at each other. Alexis gestured towards her walk in closet.

"Go…quickly…and then when it's clear just get out of here…"

He slipped inside the closet reluctantly, keeping the door just ajar. In walked Carly with some fanfare.

"Yes…what do you want," Alexis said, "I'm trying to get dressed here."

Carly didn't seem to care.

"I want to talk to you about your decision to marry Shawn while there's still time."

Alexis sighed.

"We've been down this road already," she said, "I know you think you're best friends with him but he's entitled to make his own choices."

"You're not right for him," Carly said, "For one thing, you're too much of a hypocrite."

"Oh really…and you decide this how? I mean pot, kettle, black and all that."

Carly shrugged.

"It's not personal really, you just don't come from the right background," she said, "You're not from one of the four families…not to mention you're a prude who sucks at romance."

Alexis just shook her head.

"I'm not going to prove myself to you," she said, "After all, I'm marrying Shawn."

Another woman walked in, which looked like Ava…it was Ava. Alexis hadn't remembered seeing her on the guest list but she showed up a lot of places uninvited and explosions usually followed.

Sometimes literally. Either way she was always stylishly dressed.

"Carly…there you are," she said, "I've been looking all over for you…we're having some wine out on the balcony…to prepare for this wedding."

The other woman waved her hand.

"Oh I'll be there in a moment," she said, "I'm done here…wait Ava is it you?"

The other woman nodded.

"I'm here…with Morgan of course…"

Carly's eyes went blazing, her body tensed and she balled her hand in a fist.

"I told you to stay around from my son. I've seen _Midnight Cowboy_ and Mrs. Robinson you're not…"

Alexis just thought, it's _The Graduate_ but then reminded herself Carly hadn't ever been the brightest bulb in the box.

Ava glared at her icily and the two women looked like they might go at it but Ava flipped her hair back and looked bored again.

The two women walked out and Alexis just shook her head at them and looked towards the closet. Julian's head emerged and he walked out of it.

"You're not really going through with this wedding…"

She looked over at him putting her hands on her hips.

"And what are you going to do to stop me," she said, "Kidnap me?"

The thought had crossed his mind but he hoped it wouldn't come to that. He wanted her to make that choice once he presented some case to her.

But time was running out and he had a feeling that showing would be much better than telling at this point.

"No…"

She started to walk away.

"Okay fine then tell me why I shouldn't marry him," she said, sitting on the bed, "I'm waiting…"

He looked at her knowing he didn't have much time to come up with the right words as she sat there waiting.


	4. Chapter 4

Julian stared at Alexis sitting on the bed in her slip looking at him expectedly for his reasons for walking out of her upcoming wedding to Shawn.

"I'm waiting Julian…better start talking and stop staring…"

Oh he could see the formidable attorney right now who took no prisoners, and she didn't look happy with him at all. He didn't blame her for that but that didn't mean she wouldn't listen to him.

But getting engaged to Shawn, top assassin to some of the top capos in that part of the country, that had been unfathomable to Julian when the news had finally reached him. He knew she was an adult and fully capable of making her own decisions and she could do that…after she heard some hard facts about her fiancé.

"Alexis …he's not who you think he is," he started.

She tilted her head and pushed her hair back.

"Neither were you…"

"Touché…but I'm serious. He's a man loyal to no one not even Sonny."

She narrowed her eyes.

"What does that mean? I know he was a mercenary for hire but he's been Sonny's right hand man since Jason…died.

He rubbed his jaw, thoughtfully. She didn't look at all receptive but she had to know before she made the biggest mistake in her life.

"I found out he's doing jobs for three different families in the East Coast…and hiding it from Sonny."

She frowned.

"That makes no sense…Sonny's like a brother to him."

Julian chuckled. He couldn't help it.

"It wouldn't be the first time brother turned against brother. Remember Cain and Abel?"

She shook her head.

"I don't believe you…it doesn't make any sense especially since Shawn promised he'd leave the life behind him."

"Was that why you agreed to marry him?"

She didn't answer.

"Keep going…I'm listening for now but time's not on your side here

"Alexis …"

"No Julian, I'm getting married in less than a couple hours and you'll be gone by then unless you come up with better material to argue..."

Julian thought back and considered that probably Shawn had really been dispatched back to L.A. to go after a target and somehow had sandwiched in a social life between his jobs in the past month. And had started a romance again with the woman in front of him. Okay, but neither had reached the altar yet. If he had his way at least one of them wouldn't show up.

"He was a pretty good looking sexy guy," she recalled, "and the man can dance and tell a great joke."

He could also kill and was willing to torture a man into confessing, Julian thought and she clearly didn't know that he had been keeping that skill fresh in his repertoire.

She arched her brows.

"You were saying?"

" Alexis …I don't know how to tell you this but he's not the businessman who takes frequent trips out of town to go to conferences like he probably told you…he's a…."

Suddenly a louder pair of footsteps approached the room and back Julian went into the closet. He kept the door just open enough to hear a little and see less but he did see the tall man with a muscular frame walk into the bedroom and greet Alexis by kissing her on the mouth, after wrapping his arms around her waist and pulling her closer.

"Hi Alexis," he said, "I bet you thought I'd never make it back but you'd be wrong."

She smiled up at him.

"Oh Shawn, I knew you'd be here," she said, "Though I know how important your business is to you."

He caressed her hair out of her face.

"Not as important as you are and this day where we'll be joined together as man and wife."

Julian watched from the closet, and thought to himself, not if I have anything to say about it. The man fiddled with the straps on her slip as he kissed her much longer this time, drawing them down her arms.

"Shawn we can't…we're getting married."

His lips traveled down her neck and damn that did feel good but she had to know some things first.

"All the more reason…but you're right, the guests will be arriving soon and you have to get dressed and get yourself beautiful."

She nodded as he pulled away from her.

"Shawn, is there anything you need to tell me…before we get married," she said, "I mean Carly was just in here earlier again."

He sighed.

"You know she's been told by me to keep her distance until she can play nicely."

"I think she's just a worried about losing her close friend to a woman she doesn't like very well," Alexis reasoned, "We did get engaged pretty quickly and the wedding's even coming more quickly."

He tensed at those words, she could tell and he looked at her, his eyebrows lifting.

"Are you telling me you don't want to go through with the wedding?"

She shook her head and put her hands on his chest.

"Oh no…we just haven't talked about some of the things that couples normally discuss."

He kissed her to try to remove any remaining doubts and his lips spoke eloquently but then she remembered the man hiding in the closet…not to mention the pictures.

But right then a couple of other men came in the bedroom when they saw Shawn there and told him they needed to discuss a few things with him before the nuptials. Shawn looked at his bride one more time and then left with them. A moment after they left, Julian walked back into the bedroom.

She turned to look at him.

"That's Shawn in case you didn't know," she said, "I would have told him you were here but it looks like you didn't come through the front entrance."

"I did…just as part of the security detail."

She eyed him and his outfit critically.

"You look like a jewel thief," she said, "You're not planning on breaking into any safes are you?"

He looked around the room.

"So is this his room?"

She folded her arms.

"Oh don't even go there with me, okay?"

"Alexis, the man is a professional hit-man for hire and you know it."

"You're a mafia capo who kills to gain territory and further your…business organization. You kept who you really were a secret…playing everyone including me and my daughter…"

"Our daughter…"

She shrugged.

"Semantics mostly and a night of unprotected sex in the backseat of your car."

He didn't respond to that because she was right, he had made his choices and family hadn't been at the top of the list. He knew he hadn't chosen wisely.

She sat on the bed and sighed. But he pushed forward.

"We need to talk about Shawn…before you marry him. You know what I'm telling you is true or at least you have questions about him…"

"Maybe…"

"What does that mean?"

"I was wondering about that," she said, "I found some photos that he had hidden…I don't know why I even looked or what I was looking for…maybe I thought there was another woman."

"But they weren't?"

She shook her head.

Julian looked down at her, as she sat and contemplated what she had learned a mere few hours before her wedding.

"I don't know what to think Julian…he couldn't be a hired hit-man again for all these mobsters, wouldn't I just know that if he were doing something so evil?"

He didn't respond, not sure what to say to that.

"No scratch that, I ran around with another sociopathic killer a year ago didn't I? and then of course there's you…"

He sat down beside her on the bed, so their shoulders brushed. At least she didn't appear to be too angry with him to pull away, and he had been preparing for that on the winding drive up the mountain to the estate.

" Alexis …you fell in with the side of himself he showed you," Julian said, "In both cases…but Shawn, I know he's still a hired killer. He's done jobs all over the seaboard and even in other places, a dozen in the past two months...the last in Denver."

Her mouth opened.

"You mean…Shawn works for some mobsters in Denver?"

Julian nodded.

"A cabal of them actually," he said, "tied to the uneasy coalition of the top five remaining families on the seaboard."

She put her hand over her face.

"Oh my god…and here I thought I was getting better at picking men."

Julian heard a trace of pain in her voice buried amidst the anger and indignation and realized she had really cared about the guy, maybe more than that at some time. But if she thought he was going to stand by and watch her marry a man like Shawn, she had another thing coming. Because this thug in Armani made most guys look like choir boys and at any rate, there were three pending grand jury inquiries into the five families thanks to the work done by the feds so it would be a matter of time before Shawn and Alexis 's marriage would be reduced to jailhouse visits anyway. If Sonny had been smart he'd have severed ties with his number two.

"What am I going to do …I'm getting married today to this decent man or so I thought…what's the protocol for skipping out on your own wedding? Oh wait…I'm the expert on that."

He knit his brows.

"Ned…sometimes I think if I'd only married him…but so how would I get out of here? Without making a scene."

"I think we could sneak out the back exit of this mansion as I'm sure there is one before anyone notices…my car's just down the road."

She folded her arms looking at him.

"Oh you came prepared didn't you?"

He reached over and moved a tendril of hair hanging in her face.

"I came here hoping you'd come back with me…"

Then she stood up and just stared at him and some spark had been set off inside of her.

"Oh…nice…so you thought I'd trade him in for another model…like you…Forget it."

Julian felt taken aback, what in the hell was she talking about here?

"Alexis …"

She rubbed her forehead.

"Okay Julian…we'll talk about this later…"

"Alexis we've got to get you out of here," Julian said, "but not dressed like that. I think you better change."

She rolled her eyes at him.

"Okay…I'll see what's in the closet here…it's as big as my living room back home so I ought to find something I can wear out of here."

She went into the closet and found some jeans that appeared to fit and a black sweater and some boots. She didn't know who the clothes belonged to and she didn't ask, she dressed quickly inside the closet.

After she finished dressing, she walked out and Julian glanced over at her and did a double take. What she could do to even a casual outfit, well there weren't enough words but first things first and that was getting out of the mansion and off the estate so they could get back to his car.

She looked indecisive.

"I really should talk to him…explain that I just need some time to think it over."

He shook his head.

"And what if he doesn't like your answer or decides not to let you go," Julian said, "You've got to get out of here."

"Okay…then let's go then before my bridesmaids start looking for me."

* * *

He looked out the bedroom door and when he saw it was clear, he walked out into the hallway and she followed him quite closely. They heard some people talking and headed in the opposite direction towards a back staircase. Julian went first and she followed down the rather dark flight of stairs and realized they reached the area behind the kitchen. Caterers went to and fro with plates of food and Alexis gazed a bit longingly at some of the platters as they went by.

"Damn, there goes a chance to sample some of the best fettuccini ever made."

Julian looked around and saw an exit just in front of them and grabbing her hand he headed towards it.

"Excuse me, where are you going," a voice rang out behind them.

Julian stiffened and then turned around while Alexis put on a smile when they bumped into Carly who frowned at them.

"What's he doing here," she said and then her eyes lit up, "Hah I knew you two had something going behind the scenes. How dare you bring him into this house…like some common…"

Julian glanced at her.

"Carly…"

"Shut up Carly," Alexis said, "Julian your ex-lover has dropped by and he's merely extending his best wishes."

Carly folded her arms, her eyes aiming daggers at Alexis

"Julian had a good thing with me but he wasn't smart. I guess he's onto collecting scraps now.

Alexis paused having no time for this right now. She looked over at Julian.

"Nice to see you Carly…Alexis we'd better be having that pre-wedding talk while there's time."

Carly looked at bot of them strangely then and Alexis wondered then if they had said too much.

"Well, you're practically a eunuch so I don't think you'll keep Shawn happy for long," Carly said, "You try to insinuate yourself in the family again and they'll be trouble. Well Shawn might be not yet be wise to you but I am."

Alexis shrugged.

"Look whatever Carly, would you excuse us so Julian can congratulate me in a less hostile environment?"

Carly refused to move.

"I will not…"

Alexis sighed and looked directly at her.

"If you don't, I will tell my fiancé that you spent way too much time with that man who is his main business rival…in the swimming pool the other night. You know the artist formerly known as…"

Now Shawn's sister's face flushed an alarming shade of pink and Alexis knew she had hit her mark.

"He won't believe you," Carly hissed.

"He won't have to," Alexis said, "It will be enough if he just thinks about it."

Carly sputtered some more but the wind had gone out of her sails and she tottered off. Julian turned to Alexis.

"Boy you sure can play some hardball."

She shrugged a bit.

"And you've just started to notice?"

They walked to the door and opened it to find themselves out on the courtyard, surrounded by the four wings of the mansion that had as its centerpiece, a nice fountain surrounded by rose bushes.

"The gates are this way," Alexis said, walking to where sure enough there were double iron rod gates that were ajar.

"This way…"

Julian followed her as they crept through the labyrinth of hedges which were quite high and which led all the way to the gate.

Well, almost all the way.

Ahead they saw another man, his arms around an attractive young woman with auburn hair up in a tidy bun.

"Oh no, that's one of my bridesmaids…I think."

Julian frowned.

"You don't know your own bridesmaids?"

Alexis ran her hand through her hair.

"I didn't pick them Julian," she said, "Do you really think I wanted that woman back there to be in the wedding?"

"I suppose not…why would ever let anyone do that for you…"

"Later …if you want to get out of here without being seen…we'd better move quickly and get past them."

They walked nonchalantly as much so as possible considering they were making a getaway of sorts.

But before they got there, the man looked up and his piercing gaze caught the two of them. The woman looked miffed and stood to the side, folding her arms.

"Take care of them Dante…"

Oh yeah, Dante who was one of the ushers at the wedding worked closely with Shawn which meant…was the hell was PC's only real cop doing standing with a hired hit man at his wedding?

"Alexis what are you doing out here…and who's this man?"

She put on a smile and looked over at Julian, wondering how Dante had been fooled.

"He's security…I know it's kind of annoying to have a shadow following me around but Shawn put his foot down on this one."

Dante frowned, checking Julian out but the woman, Lulu looked skeptical.

"Wait a minute Dante," she said, "He's way too fine looking for Shawn to trust with his woman."

Alexis wanted to roll her eyes, _his woman_?

But Dante didn't look happy at all especially with his wife's backhanded compliment of the strange man in front of him.

"Lulu, what do you mean he's fine looking," he said, "You're attracted to this man here?"

She stammered, her eyes blinking seductively.

"Oh no darling…he could never come close to lighting my fire like you do…"

"That's better," Dante said, "as for Shawn, with all the pressure he's under, she might need an armed guard to protect her."

Alexis felt curiosity get the better of her.

"What do you mean 'pressure' Dante," she said, "Is Shawn not telling me everything that's going on?"

Dante looked sheepish.

"I said too much," he said, "Nothing for you to worry yourself about…so go back to getting ready for your wedding."

"I just have to say goodbye to him…I'll see you later Dante…"

Julian and Alexis started to leave when suddenly someone else called out.

"Wait a minute…"


	5. Chapter 5

Julian and Alexis turned around just as they had come close to exiting the hedge maze close to the front entrance of the estate. Oh god, she couldn't believe the man standing in front of her. He brought out some homicidal instincts she thought she'd buried.

"Where are you going," the man asked, "Why's he here?"

Alexis smiled gritting her teeth.

"I needed to get some fresh air Franco," she said, "He's here to wish me well before the wedding."

Julian looked over at the man with the lean build who looked like he'd been hitting the wet bar before most of the guests arrived.

She turned to look over at Julian.

"That's Franco, as you know," she said, "He's here for the wedding. For the record I did _not_ invite him."

Yeah, Julian thought he knew the man and he made sure his hand was nowhere near his gun. He had no use for the man who'd terrorized his daughter either.

"Franco…," Julian said, "We'll be back in about 10 minutes."

Franco folded his arms and then Julian could see the guy really was a bit plastered.

"Does Shawn know you left the house?"

Alexis sighed.

"I don't need his permission to do anything," she said, "The room got stuffy and I wanted to go take a short walk…but you know how Shawn would like me to be congratulated by well-wishers."

Franco nodded but still looked skeptical.

"Maybe I should find him."

Alexis shrugged.

"Maybe you should do that," she said, "but he's busy now wrapping up business before our wedding and honeymoon and he won't want to be disturbed."

Franco thought about that and finally nodded back.

"Okay…but don't be gone too long or the wedding won't start on time."

He walked away and Julian and Alexis headed towards the gate. It looked like it had been left unattended for a while and Julian decided to take full advantage of that. They walked through and then headed up the road towards where he parked his Porsche.

"Halt…where you going?"

They looked behind them and saw a group of men dressed in tuxes walking behind them. Julian looked at Alexis.

"I think this is where we pick up the pace," he said.

She nodded and they both took off at a run, towards the bend where just beyond it would be their getaway vehicle. Hell, it wasn't the first time he had been in this position. Okay, maybe it hadn't been fleeing a wedding but other equally difficult situations and it all amounted to the same thing.

"Hey come back here," the men said.

Julian looked over at them and realized he had a decision to make. He stopped, grabbed Alexis and then pulled her against him.

"What are you doing?"

Julian whispered.

"Play along…"

He pulled out his gun and pressed it against her side then he turned around to face the men.

"One step closer and I'll blow her head off," Julian yelled, pressing the gun harder against her side.

The men backed up a few steps.

"That's better," Julian said, stepping backward with Alexis towards the Porsche, "I'm taking off with her and when I'm ready to collect a ransom, I'll give your boss a call."

"You wouldn't dare," one of them said, "He'll smoke your ass."

Julian didn't look impressed.

"He'll have to find me first," he said, "and he tries to pull anything, the woman's dead."

The men stood there frozen as if they couldn't believe the sight in front of them. As if they couldn't believe that anyone would challenge the Big Five Families including one of their best hired hit men, Shawn.

"I'll keep in touch," Julian said, as he and Alexis headed towards the Porsche.

Once the men left, they headed towards the car quickly and got inside, before turning around to head back down the mountain past the estate's front gate.

"You might want to duck in case they start shooting," Julian said.

She looked over at him.

"What about you?"

"I got to keep driving…"

Julian revved up the car and they drove faster past the estate and weren't too surprised to see a car jet out of the gate following them down the mountain road. Then quickly after that, gun shots ringing out including one that dinged of the fender.

"Damn they're shooting at us," Alexis said, trying to drop out of range.

She looked over at Julian who slouched lower but focused on getting them down into highway in one piece. But the shots continued and one whizzed by Julian's head.

"I'm going to have to speed up," he said, "Hold on!"

The car sped up even faster, the frame straining under the demands from the acceleration but they pulled slowly away from the pursuing car. Julian made the most of the opportunity by catching the turn onto the coastline highway and then losing himself in traffic. He wove in and out of the lanes as drivers honked at him in indignation but the distance between them and the car behind them lengthened further. They pulled abruptly off into a side street and the car sped past unaware.

"That was close," Alexis said as Julian stopped the car before heading further down the side street to another which would lead them back to the highway some distance further.

"We'd better find some place to lie low," he said, "Those men will be back."

She just looked at him.

"What was that back there," she said, "Why did you do that?"

Julian sighed.

"So that he doesn't suspect that you were leaving freely," Julian said, "So he'll focus his anger on me."

She slapped his arm lightly.

"Why did you think I needed you to protect me?"

Julian looked directly at her.

"Because he's a dangerous man Alexis and I don't want you to get hurt."

She shook her head at him.

"I'm the one who got myself in this situation," she said, "It's my responsibility…besides what gives you the right to say that, considering you're a capo quite a few steps and executions above an enforcer."

Julian drove until they reached a small diner and parked in the back.

"Where are we," she asked.

"I've got someone meeting us," he explained, "They might be able to help us but we've got some time to kill."

She studied the man next to her, the ruthless mobster, and the man who'd discovered he had a family, but today she had seen a different side of him. He knew his way behind the wheel of a car.

And then she noticed something else.

"Julian…you're bleeding…"

He looked over at his shirt sleeve which had been dampened by blood.

"It's just a graze…"

They pulled into the parking lot and she moved over when he stopped the car and rolled up his sleeve. The wound seeped blood but didn't look bad. It needed to be cleaned up.

"Do you have a first aid kit inside here?"

Julian nodded.

"In the glove compartment…came with the car."

She pulled it out and opened the kit, looking down at the contents. She perused them and then grabbed some gauze and some tape and some antiseptic. She poured some of the medicine on the gauze and gingerly tried to clean it up.

"Ouch Alexis …what do you got there battery acid?"

"Yeah, now will you sit still a minute," she said, patting the blood off of what looked like an abrasion.

"I will if you put that medicine away," he said, "It's just a scratch."

"I know, but I don't want it to get infected. My daughter might not forgive me."

She took some gauze and taped it to his arm over the wound and then gently rolled his sleeve down for him.

"That's much better isn't it?"

He smiled at her and touched her upper arm.

"Yeah…much better…now let's get inside okay?"

The two of them went inside the diner to plan their next move now that they had a pack of heavy hitters out there looking for them.

* * *

Julian and Alexis ate the hamburger platters that the cook prepared for them, with wedge cut fries and milk shakes. Alexis found herself famished and the food quite tasty as did Julian and their hosts were gracious.

"What are we going to do now," Alexis said, "We can't head back to PC. If Shawn really believes you kidnapped me, he'll send his men there first."

"I know…I think we should head to Crystal Cove not far from here," he said, "A friend of mine has a place there and there's no way to connect him to us. We just have to make sure we don't get followed."

She nodded.

"But what you did, Shawn's not going to let it go."

"I don't want him to," Julian said, "But it's not going to get him anywhere. Besides, the feds have the goods on the Big Five and they'll be going down soon and that might include Shawn…and Sonny."

She frowned at him.

"What about you?"

He shrugged.

"When they found out Sonny's behind the hit at that party…I think that'll attract their focus…and they'll forget me for a while."

She looked puzzled.

"What?"

He slipped an envelope that he'd brought from the car.

"I found this in the closet Alexis…take a look…"

She grabbed it and opened it. She blinked and put a hand over her mouth, staring at two photos.

"Oh my god…it was him…but why? His own son was there and…my daughter…"

"I don't know. I don't know who ordered it since he's an independent contractor."

She sat there processing it, feeling suddenly ice cold.

He nodded.

"The recon we did was successful. I owe the man I hired a large check."

She rubbed the bridge of her noise.

"Was I ever going to know about this," she said, "I was just about to walk down the aisle with this guy…the one who nearly took my child from me."

"I'm not totally blameless for that," he said, "I sent my man…Carlos you know him out to take Shawn out…but to the waterfront. He followed Shawn back to Kelly's and that's when he saw an opportunity…only it appeared that Shawn had other plans."

She remained confused.

"So who was the hit then? It wasn't the kids so who was it?"

He sighed, finishing his burger.

"Someone you might know…who's set to meet with us."

She finished off her french-fries.

"I guess I had been pretty busy too much so to pay any attention," she said, "It happened so fast, I didn't even know what it was about him, I guess the promises he made that he'd quit the mob and god, he was great looking…I guess you don't want to hear that part."

Julian sipped his drink.

"But to marry him…that doesn't sound like you."

Irritation filled her at his certainty that he knew everything about her.

"Maybe you don't know everything about me. Two marriages, two divorces."

"I know enough to know that you don't usually run off and get married to men you barely know."

Alexis sipped her shake.

"No, not usually…but we were going out for six months so he wasn't a stranger."

"Why did you do it..?"

Alexis remained quiet for a moment.

"He swept me off my feet, no not the way you think. He said a lot of things and I guess I believed him," she said, "He seemed so much different than he had been before but I really should have known better."

Julian wanted to tell her it wasn't her fault but knew she had to figure that out herself. Besides he had to figure out what to do next.

"We'd better head to my friends' place," Julian said, "before it gets dark."

"Do you think they're still out there driving around?"

They got up after paying their tab and headed to the car out in the lot.

"They're probably back at the estate coming up with a plan to look for us," Julian said.

"Okay…then I guess we'd better get going," she said, as they both got in the Porsche and headed to the house.

* * *

Julian parked his car in back of the house which had the ocean a hundred yards from its back door. The house itself was nicely furnished inside with a couple of bedrooms and a spacious kitchen, not to mention a back deck.

Alexis collapsed on the couch while Julian looked around the house.

"This place is nice," she said, "Where's your friends?"

"They're out of the country," he said, "They won't be back for a few months. I called them and asked them if I could stay for a little while."

Her brow arched.

"Before or after that stunt you pulled at the estate?"

"Before…I thought you might want a place to think for a while."

She glanced at him, surprised.

"Why would I need that…I don't need to sit around figuring out what I did wrong," she said, "I just need to move on."

"You can do that with Shawn?"

Alexis looked at him and nodded.

"I can't stay with him if he's a hired killer and I don't know how to confront him with that kind of information. I've got my family to think of…he's endangered them enough. He's lucky to be allowed to live and that might change."

She didn't look like she was kidding.

Julian watched as she got up and walked into the kitchen to look in the refrigerator.

"They left some beers," she said, "Want one?"

Julian nodded and she brought back two, tossing him one.

"They've got some clothes if you need any," he said, "in one of the bedrooms."

She sat on the couch opposite from the chair he occupied.

"How long are we saying here?"

Julian leaned back in his chair with his beer.

"How long do you want to stay," he said, "We can't go back to PC while the feds are camped there and we'll have to lie low for a while."

She sighed.

"Okay well I guess that will work…as long as they don't find us."

Julian reached for his cell phone.

"We're going to have to call Sam and Nikolas and tell them both to lie low in case they go after them."

Alexis hoped that it wouldn't come to that but she knew those two of her family members could take care of themselves especially with advance notice. Molly had flown to L.A. to stay with Ric for a while and he grumbled something about whether it was safe for her to stay in PC.

They finished their calls and he looked up to see Alexis looking at him.

"At least that's taken care of," she said, "Now we can figure out what to do here."

And so they sat down together to do just that.


	6. Chapter 6

Alexis sat on the beach and read a novel. She rarely had any spare time for pleasure reading so sitting down with a mystery novel in such a lovely setting was something she really enjoyed. She'd been doing some thinking about what had happened so far since they'd been holed up at the beach house.

Julian had been inside the house using the computer there to find out more information on Shawn's so-called business that he used as a front for his real profession which hopefully would tie all the players together. She watched him work and thought in a different life…maybe he'd be a cop or a federal agent.

When she brought it up, he'd chuckled.

"I was something much more dangerous," he said, "An investigative reporter when I was Derek Wells, a normal man in a normal profession."

She looked over his shoulder.

"I rather liked him. He swooped him and saved a little boy's life and he was charming and very sexy…"

"Alexis…"

She patted him on the shoulder.

"No…Julian. It was your choice to lead a double life. Is it my fault that I liked one better than the other?"

"Derek was me…parts of me anyway. I rather enjoyed being him most of the time."

She walked away from him.

"No he was just a part you played," she said, "while you played me, played my daughter and well…if you hadn't saved Danny's life…"

She didn't need to finish. He got the message. He didn't hold it against her like he would with most. Her fierce protectiveness of her family including children was a huge part of what had attracted him.

They had been there since two days ago mostly lying low which meant sticking around the house or on the beach in case anybody came looking for them. They'd headed into town for food shopping and to pick up some clothes. Julian had produced some cash. Alexis didn't ask questions.

Alexis had hit the beach, mostly lying in the sand in a suit she had bought at a store along with some other clothes or swimming in the ocean which had been refreshing after sitting in the sun. Sometimes Julian would come down and join her and he looked as great as he always did, keeping himself in fighting shape marred only where the bullet had grazed his skin during their getaway.

He'd never been shy about showing off his body. She'd never been shy about looking at it.

She didn't think much about her fiancé who no doubt was out there looking for her rather than awaiting the ransom note. They kept careful watch where they stayed but deemed it unlikely that anyone would find them right away. Julian had worked hard to leave a false trail of them heading to NYC and had friends helping him do that up there.

In the meantime, they relaxed a little, they ate great food that they cooked up including on the barbecue. They talked but mostly about their plan of action and any information either had uncovered, ideas they had…strictly business.

Very little that was personal. Alexis had made that clear up front and when she'd said goodnight to him the first day.

"I'm sticking to business with you," she said, "Everything else is off limits understand?"

Julian paused putting down his beer that he'd been drinking.

"I can't promise that Alexis but I will give you some space…for now."

She just rolled her eyes, thinking his alpha male tricks wouldn't work on her and went to serve herself some of that decadent dark chocolate cake that had looked so inviting in the bakery window.

Studies said most women preferred chocolate to sex. Alexis wouldn't go _that_ far but she enjoyed a good dose of it. So she had brought herself a big piece of it on a plate, enjoying it on the sofa.

Each succulent bite, washed down by some wine. He glanced at her seeing a smile on her face.

"What you thinking about?"

She ate another bite of cake.

"My ex-husband…Jax and how much I miss him."

Julian had heard about Jax mostly from Carly who'd been with him. Not much about his marriage to Alexis except it hadn't lasted long.

"You still friendly with him?"

"Best friends. He'd have warned me about you."

His mouth quirked.

"Would you have listened?"

She snorted.

"Probably not…"

She got up and headed back to the kitchen and he watched her go in jeans and a long sleeve large sweater she'd nabbed from a closet.

"He liked Shawn…back when they and Sonny worked together to save PC from Jerry Jax."

He'd heard about and read about it in his newspapers' archives. She had been Jerry's hostage and had been willing to give up her freedom and most likely her life to save others. But she didn't mention part of that episode.

"I guess he would have been happy for me since he thought he was quite the hero…"

"Even a villain can do something good once in a while," he said, "Just ask me."

She put the book down when he walked towards her wearing that damn swimsuit that didn't leave much to the imagination and carrying a towel. He sat down in the sand next to her close to the surf.

"So you hear from your friend?"

He looked out into the surf at the sailboats in the distance.

"Not yet…but he's very busy and rather eclectic."

She sipped from a water bottle.

"Hopefully he can help us…so we can go back to our lives."

"Might take a while. Shawn's not going to give up and we still don't know who ordered that hit."

"Your friend can't tell us?"

"He's not sure."

"You don't seem like the guy who'd attracted many friends like that. Confidence isn't one of your problems as we've seen with the ladies."

Julian chuckled at that and she rewarded him with a smile in return. She really had a beautiful one but then she had always been a lovely woman. She sat opposite him on the beach towel right now, wearing a really nice red swimsuit with a sheer wrap over it.

"I don't think you need to go that far."

She sighed at him, shaking her head.

"No I think it's a good thing that you're casual about your affairs," she said, "I envy that."

He frowned.

"What do you mean?"

"I've really got to be a lot more careful about whom I enter into relationships with," she said, "Whether it's long-term commitment or a more passing thing…though I'm done with the former."

"Alexis it's not your fault that men like Shawn make the decisions that they make and you shouldn't be too hard on yourself that you didn't see through them earlier. After all, you didn't marry him."

She sighed, looking out at the ocean.

"You interrupted it…I'm not sure what I would have done.

"I'm sure you would have figured it out," Julian said, "You're a smart woman."

She just gave him that look.

"I'm including you with him. A part of me wish those guys shot you."

"Really…you wound me Alexis."

She just tilted her face.

"Don't….start…"

"Okay…but I didn't get shot, they did miss and we're together on a nice beach on a warm day relaxing…"

She reached for her water again.

"While Shawn and a bunch of mobsters are probably looking for us. Or waiting for you to call in a ransom. Have you decided on a number yet?"

He just looked at her intently.

"I haven't decided how much you're worth. It'd have to be a pretty high price to give you up."

She didn't know how to respond to that.

"I'll let them wait a while longer."

She ran her fingers through the warm sand while he moved closer to her. Not much but just enough.

"Maybe a lot longer."

He stroked a tendril of hair out of her face which he loved to do, she noticed. She knew he wanted a response from her…to get her off balance the way he liked. But she didn't let on she even noticed, though her skin tingled, her blood warmed.

Damn him and damn her if she let him play her again.

"Julian…"

His gaze focused on her.

"What…"

She paused picking her words carefully.

"How do you do it?"

"Do what," he asked back.

"Have these relationships with women…these dalliances of yours and then walk away?"

Julian shifted his position on the towel.

"It's not quite like that…the relationships run their course, some more quickly than others."

"I know that…but isn't it ever difficult even with the shorter ones?"

Julian considered her question and he saw the expression on her face that it had been weighing on her mind for some time. He knew that she'd known about his brief flings with both Carly and Olivia earlier on in his return to PC.

"Well sometimes both parties are willing to just enjoy the moment, whether it's meeting someone on a business trip, or an airport layover or at a nightclub."

"Oh so two ships that passed in the night…"

He grimaced.

"More like collided in one case. They were brief and then they were over."

"Hey I'm not judging you. I just wish I was as good at doing that as you have been," she said, "I mean every new man just gravitates to Carly first. It's an unwritten rule in PC so why would you be different?"

He narrowed his eyes.

"Unwritten rule?"

"Oh yeah…didn't you read the manual when you got here?"

"No…I don't follow manuals," he said, "I made my own choices for my own reasons."

She nodded.

"Oh I get that…both were women who were very close to your enemy, Sonny. So you used them to get to him."

"Not exactly…"

"Whatever…anyway. I'm just saying sometimes I wish I could be casual like that."

He just looked at her, his eyes not blinking.

"Is that what you really want?"

She shrugged.

"I guess I wanted more than that once," she admitted, "but once again I fell short. Maybe it's time for a change and I should try taking things less seriously with men."

"You think that's going to make you happy?"

She smiled at him, spreading herself out on her towel to face him.

"I'm thinking more along the lines of whether it will be more fun."

He caught the sparkle in her eye and suppressed his smile,

"Okay…well we're a little bit busy now so socializing with others might have to take a back seat for now."

She nodded.

"True…but I've wondered…what it gives me something to think about when I return to PC, how to live that part of my life."

His breath caught in his throat especially when he read her face after she dropped that line of reasoning on him.

"Excuse me?"

She smiled, pulling her hair back off of her face.

"I'm a busy woman anyway, and I think I'm just done with relationships. But it still doesn't mean I don't want to have some fun. Diane, you know her, she's been trying to get me to do that for years. Get out and mingle…hook up with some good looking single man. Just have a good time and not get too emotional about it."

His skin felt warm when she put it that way. She had meant it after all.

"Alexis are you saying what I think you're saying?"

She nodded.

.

"When I get to PC it's going to be the beginning of the rest of my life…"

"So that's your plan?"

She nodded and got on her feet, while he admired the view. She flipped her hair back off her face.

"Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to cool off…"

He watched her as she walked out into the ocean as the waves broke on shore. Damn she'd amazed him once again but he'd seen the weariness on her face too and knew he'd put some of it there.


	7. Chapter 7

Julian and Alexis left the beach house to head into the small village to get some more groceries after they ate some lunch at a small diner. But when they headed inside the establishment, they saw the local newspaper as well as a publication circulated back in all of New York.

And on the front page, they saw their photographs prominently placed. Alexis figured that the photo they printed of her had been taken at a recent charity gala before Carly and Olivia had their latest round smashing crystal over Sonny.

"Look at the headlines," she said, "They read that you kidnapped me at gunpoint from my wedding to a prominent businessman and you're still at large."

Julian looked at the paper incredulous then bought a copy to read inside the restaurant.

"Wait a minute, should we even go in there," Alexis asked, "Now that we're front page news?"

Julian thought about it.

"I think we'll be okay," he said, "It should be obvious when someone sees us together that I didn't kidnap you."

She smiled at him.

"True…I'm hungry anyway…"

They walked inside and sat in a corner booth, picking up menus and looking over the delicious entrees. The waitress came over to take their order and clearly didn't know about their starring role in the daily news. They kept it simple, ordering the special burger combo with curly fries so that they wouldn't stand out as being unusual. Julian looked over at Alexis who sat there sipping her cola in her knit sweater top over a pair of sweats that accentuated her supple legs. Her skin had tanned from the past days spent on the beach and she looked relaxed, considering the circumstances.

But what would she think if she knew about these dreams that he had been having about her, about them? Dreams that crept into his sleep the last several nights leaving him awake and looking into the darkness of his room.

"Julian, are you feeling okay?"

He glanced up at her and she gave him a funny look. She had worn her hair in soft curls today, off of her face. He knew her hair to be soft to the touch and in his dreams…he sighed picking up his drink and taking a large sip.

"I'm just fine Alexis," he said, "Just doing some thinking."

She nodded.

"Oh yeah about us being on the front page of the newspaper," Alexis said, "Do you think the police are out looking for us too?"

Julian rubbed his jaw.

"Well Spinelli said the PCPD was staking out the office building and my home but nothing's turned up yet. That and the usual dark sedans parked halfway down the block with company men sitting inside them."

Alexis stroked the rim of her glass.

"That's how Shawn works," she said, "I think he fancies being sneakier than that. Someone must be helping him."

Julian nodded.

"My thinking too. Question is which mobster and is it the same one who hit Kelly's?"

Their food came and they dove into it hungrily enough to eat in companionable silence for a moment. Alexis thought that it must be those sea breezes that wafted onshore that must be responsible for her feeling both energetic and hungrier than she had been in the past few months. She thought she'd be stressed out after having literally run away from her fiancé but she felt just the opposite. That spoke volumes about her relationship with Shawn and not in a positive sense.

She looked over at Julian and thought he looked his usually good looking self in his top with the first button undone and slacks. The man had clearly worked out and kept himself fit most of his life. His sleeves were rolled up halfway up his arms and she loved how strong they looked. But then she'd always liked looking at him, what woman wouldn't?

She kept telling herself to take her feelings about him no further than that. Appreciating a man's good looks even a mobster was just being female…but anything else she backed away from and stayed back.

She wondered how he viewed her. Not that it mattered if he'd just been using his charms and flirtations on her to achieve a means to the ends. She didn't mind him doing it to get closer to Sam and Danny as a father and grandfather trying to learn more about them. But if he'd been using her to get at Sonny…of course that's what he'd been doing. She reminded herself never to forget that. Else she'd look as foolish as she felt when it had all come crashing down.

Just as well he didn't know about what she had been dreaming about lately when she had been sleeping in the bedroom down the hallway from the one he used. She had woken up in a sweat the other night after she and he…well they had been reenacting a certain surfside scene from a famous movie and it had felt so real she felt the chill of the ocean water as it cascaded over them and the sand it carried with it, but mostly the sensation of his body and his arms wrapped around hers. All they needed was a stirring soundtrack in the background.

She had to get up and go to the kitchen to get a glass of water to cool down.

Why did she have these dreams when she had just been engaged to the man she almost walked down the aisle with just days ago? She knew she shouldn't be dreaming about him…not after he'd played her too well.

"Julian…"

He looked up at her from his fries.

"What is it?"

She hesitated before saying anything wondering how she would even broach the subject.

"How've you been sleeping?"

He shot her an inquisitive look.

"Fine…must be the sound of the ocean at night but I've never slept better."

She sighed, at his answer because she had been tossing and turning unable to get back to sleep after some of these very vivid and emotionally charged dreams.

"That's good…I've been sleeping…fine too…"

He gazed at her when she picked up her hamburger to finish eating it, knowing she clearly had something on her mind.

"What's going on?"

She looked at him sideways.

"Oh nothing…just this whole kidnapping thing…nothing could be further from the truth. I didn't think it'd attract so much attention."

Julian looked a bit puzzled at that.

"I kidnapped you at gunpoint as far as they're concerned though I wonder if Shawn's gone to the police."

She sighed.

"Dante was at the wedding. Maybe he's handling it back in PC."

"I didn't want him to know you were involved in it Alexis. It's better this way."

She picked up a french-fry and ate it thoughtfully.

"Maybe that wasn't a good idea because then he looks clean and you look like the criminal to go after."

"The feds are going to issue indictments soon," Julian said, "I think that Shawn will have plenty to think and worry about then besides us once he's tied to those shootings."

She grew silent for a moment.

"You know I don't really miss him like I should," she said, "What does that say about me and my commitments?"

"Maybe on some level, you wanted out."

She turned to look at him sharply.

"What makes you say such a thing," she said, "I thought I wanted to marry him but I guess I only thought that I did."

The waitress returned with their ticket and smiled at them.

"Nice weather we're having today," she said, "Are you like tourists because I haven't seen you around here before…"

Julian and Alexis looked at each other.

"No…"

"Yes…"

Alexis rolled her eyes.

"He thinks he's been here all of his life, we're having such a great time," she said.

The waitress looked at them a bit uncertainly. Alexis wondered if she would be on the phone calling the police or the media to tell them that the bride-napper was currently sitting in the local diner with his victim.

"Yeah…it just feels so much like home," Julian said, "We're thinking of buying one of those bungalows on the coast."

The waitress nodded.

"Oh yes, I have one myself," she said, "They're very nice, great view of the ocean too."

Julian slipped his hands in Alexis' and she tried not to react.

"We…my sweetheart and I…we're kind of on a second honeymoon."

The waitress furrowed her brow.

"I didn't peg you for being married because you don't have rings."

Alexis just shot a look at Julian and shrugged.

"That's because he's too cheap to buy me one," she said, "I'm working on him and he's on a timeline."

Julian looked sheepish.

"She's got me there," he said, "It's just that I couldn't decide which one I wanted to buy."

"He's indecisive like that," Alexis chimed in.

The waitress nodded.

"I see…I think…well come on back now," she said, "We've got some prime lobster coming in from Maine next week."

Julian and Alexis got up and headed out of the restaurant.

"We'd better get going because I doubt she bought our story," Alexis said.

They reached the car so they could head to the market which was pretty modest in size but the shelves were well stocked and it didn't take long for the two of them to pack a cart. Julian selected some nice steaks and Alexis went to check out the produce section to get some vegetables. Overheard, there was a television set where a blond woman sat behind a desk delivering the news. Alexis looked up closer and saw a familiar sight.

"Oh my god…"

They flashed that fairly old photo of her again and one of Julian from what looked like back when he won some award at a black tie event as Derek Wells. Their pictures were side by side in the background while the woman breathlessly reported on how Alexis had been kidnapped by a former lover.

"A what…."

She just couldn't believe it. The media didn't know enough of the truth so they filled in the considerable blanks with reports of how she and Julian had this torrid love affair that had ruptured the engagement that she had with Shawn who was being depicted as a successful businessman who shined in the area of ethics.

Some brunette woman looked straight into the camera after being identified as a "close friend" of Alexis and regaled the news anchor with tales of Alexis's exploits with men back in college.

"She wasn't I would say…loose or anything liked that…but the girl loved a good time…"

Alexis frowned, who was this woman again? She looked vaguely familiar but for being one of her "good friends", Alexis just couldn't place her. Then she saw Shawn's face, his eyes serious and his tone hushed.

"It was the most terrifying experience of my life…watching my fiancée being abducted by that man who waved a gun at her and threatened to kill everyone…"

She just sighed as she watched, because that in no way had been what had actually happened. After all, a hit man who blew away people for a living was talking about how terrified he had been? He certainly was playing the victimized groom to the hilt.

"I am begging…no I am beseeching the kidnapper not to hurt her to get at me," Shawn said, "Please let her go unharmed…just tell me what you want in return."

Alexis wondered what Julian would think if he were watching but no doubt he was in the meat section checking out loins and prime cuts blissfully unaware that he had been painted as a hardened kidnapper.

She turned away from the television hoping no one else had seen it and headed to find Julian so they could make an escape before anyone could identify them.


	8. Chapter 8

"I can't believe that Shawn's acting like the bereaved husband," Alexis said, "We didn't even get married."

"It's the perfect cover," Julian said, "Turn me into the wanted criminal will get focus away from the impending indictments against him and the company he keeps."

They sat inside the beach house after returning safely from their foray into town. If anyone noticed that they resembled a kidnapper and his victim, no one commented on it or even gave them strange looks. They relaxed on the sofa with some Scotch to relax their nerves, of course. Alexis needed a couple of glasses before she felt completely assured that no one was going to break the doors down to come after Julian for kidnapping or her for not going through with her wedding after the arrangements had been made and the invitations had been mailed out.

"I'd be on my honeymoon right now with a hired killer," Alexis said, "if it hadn't been for you. I guess I owe you that."

"I think you would have figured it out. You're a smart woman good at that kind of thing."

She sipped her Scotch.

"Yeah we are quite a pair," she said, "I put a whole new spin on the runaway bride this time…so I did get out and you're the rival mobster."

He looked at her a long moment.

"I think we make a good team."

Alexis broke his gaze, chuckling.

"Just don't turn your back on me," she said, "I'm a Cassadine after all."

"I'll remember that…My friend will be meeting with us soon to help us find who ordered Shawn to do that hit and that'll help send him to prison."

She looked at him pointedly.

"Which will be good for you Julian won't it? That'll weaken Sonny's control over the territory in PC which will strengthen your own position."

He went to pour some more Scotch in his own glass before returning.

"Sonny's got his plate full already without my help. The feds might indict him and maybe his son Dante if he covered for him. What comes out on Shawn's hits will only further their investigation?"

She nursed her drink thoughtfully.

"Breaking up the wedding of Sonny's number one enforcer would help your cause too wouldn't it? You wanted to be the number one Mafioso in PC, you'd planned it all those years…"

"Alexis. That's not why I did it…well not mostly."

She waved her hand.

"Whatever, but you once told me you're into playing games…"

"As I recall, I wasn't the first person in that conversation to say that."

Something flashed in her eyes oh so briefly but Julian saw it. She looked down at her glass then back at him.

"I said Sonny and I played games. I didn't say I liked it. I wanted to be something more than a prop for him to pass the time or get over one of his moods…I wanted to be different than the other women…smarter more worldly in the professional sense. Like I said, I lost and wound up with a mob baby…"

"I wouldn't call that losing."

"Agreed as far as my daughter is concerned," she said, "I can't imagine life without Kristina."

He nodded.

"Even though I've only known Sam for a short while, I can't imagine what it'd be like without her and Danny. I do care about them no matter what you might think."

She softened just a bit.

"I know…so do I and as long as you don't hurt them you don't have to worry about me…so it's not like you didn't enjoy playing the mobster."

"I did. I admit it Alexis and for the first couple of months it was great…to see all those years of planning come to fruition…playing the chess game positioning the pieces…even the hands on action."

"The killing?"

He paused a long moment.

"No…that was just business. Working for Sonny you know we can't just fire our employees and send them severance checks."

She sipped her drink.

"I suppose not…I know what my son in law Jason did. I was surprised to see Max get caught up in it with Shawn. For years I thought he was just an inept butler."

"Max should have taken the deal offered him by the feds," Julian said, "now he'll spend the rest of his life in prison."

She shook his head.

"You sure you don't belong there with them?"

He countered.

"It seems you avoided prison a time or two."

He had her there.

"Not that I'm judging you…you did what you had to do to protect your children…and Luis Alcazar had it coming. If it hadn't been you, it'd been someone else."

Her voice dropped.

"So you know about him?"

He nodded.

"News gets around the mobster underground. Alexis, the Alcazars were among the vilest of mobsters. They oversaw one of the biggest drug cartels in South America and were flirting with human trafficking."

She shook her head.

"Never liked them. I was on the hit list for taking out Luis but of course that meant going against Sonny's operation."

Julian didn't respond. By now, he'd already learned that his own family's members were so intertwined with that of Sonny's there was no point in separating the two…and it had been messy to even try.

She looked at him in that piercing way she had and probably use on many uncooperative witnesses on the stand.

"Well the feds are going to descend on Sonny and they'll probably come after you when they're done with him…so what's next for you then?"

"I don't know…if they stop with Sonny I might keep my territory…"

She sighed.

"Julian…you know they won't stop with him," she said, "after all you both have blood on your hands. That's why the feds are in PC and trying to get all the mobsters on racketeering charges and tax evasion charges…in case the more egregious crimes can't be proven."

Meaning that most of the bodies that had been dumped or kicked off of Pier 52 were likely fish food long ago.

He just sat there listening. She arched a brow at him.

"After all good looks and a great sense of humor and style can only get you so far…"

He lightened a bit at her words.

"At least I have some good traits."

She nodded.

"A few…but the rest…well that's your problem to fix or not. For now, I suppose we better focus on Shawn and what he's going to do…"

"It'll be okay," Julian said, "The feds at least knows the guy's a killer and so does most of the eastern seaboard. It's only a matter of time before he goes down and I'm glad you're spared from being in the middle of that."

She nodded and as he gazed at her, he saw a look of vulnerability on her face. She looked so pretty sitting there reflecting on what had happened in the past several months, as beautiful as she had in his dreams lately.

"That wouldn't have been right Alexis."

She didn't know how to answer that so she refilled her glass though she added more ice to water it down. If he thought he'd see her intoxicated in front of her he had another thing coming.

She had to be strong and tough on him; she had to make it clear that it wouldn't be that easy for him to explain away his own behavior. And to do that, she had to keep her mind off of how sumptuous he looked in his outfit. The shirt unbuttoned enough to expose a bit of skin on his chest and she had always loved the way any pair of pants fit him.  
Why was she thinking these thoughts that she swore she'd never do again? Was it the alcohol because she noticed the level inside the Scotch bottle had dropped considerably thanks largely to her.

She sighed, thinking maybe it would help to establish some physical distance from him first. So she got up off the sofa she shared with him and sat in a nearby chair. He gave her an odd look in response.

"What are you doing," he said, "Weren't you comfortable where you were sitting?"

"I like it here better…"

He rubbed his forehead.

"Did anything I say bother you?"

She shook her head.

"No, I've just been doing a lot of thinking and I don't want to give you any ideas that things have changed between us."

"Any reason for that," he broached.

"No, not that I can think of," she said, "After all, it was all one-sided anyway between us."

His brow lifted.

"You really believe that?"

She sighed again, picking up the bottle and pouring another glass of the liquid.

"Of course…you used me to get close to my daughter and grandson first…which I can accept but then to get back at Sonny…it's not the first time that's happened. I should have been at the very least twice shy is it?"

He wished she hadn't left the couch.

"Do you really believe that," he said, "You think it was all about getting under Sonny's skin or getting back at him?"

She nodded.

"Sure it was…you wanted to seduce all of Sonny's women and I suppose if Brenda had hung around longer after Sonny's intervention..."

He shook his head.

"It wasn't all like that."

"We shouldn't even be having this discussion," she said, "All I can say and no it's not the liquor speaking is that I'm thankful that I overheard that conversation in the hallway…and why don't people ever discuss secrets in private?"

His eyes closed remembering that night. He knew she was partially right…mostly right when factoring in the other two women.

She looked up at him and he saw the emotions swimming in her eyes and boy, did they look like they'd lived there a while and why hadn't he seen them earlier? Had he really missed what he'd put there?

"I'd been used before by Sonny's other adversaries or rivals," she said, "Hell I even married another man…who did it I think to get back at his brother."

"Molly's father…"

"Of course…the one that thinks I can't keep my own daughter safe from all the crime happening in PC the past few months…he was close to being right."

She knew the Scotch if not talking for her had definitely prodded her to be more open with her thoughts than she would be otherwise. The look on his face just said it all but how she could retract her words now that they've been said.

Look at him, the man had frozen at her admission and looked at her now, wordlessly.

"Okay…I'm sorry about that," she said, trying to get herself out of her chair," I think I'll just stop drinking and go think some more by myself."

But he got up with her and grabbed her arm. She turned to face him, her eye arching, definitely feeling the physical contact.

"Really, I've embarrassed myself enough by saying words that won't change anything," she said, "Instead they could just more reason to find a way to use me to get what you want…like you use everyone."

But he didn't listen to that, and instead he wrapped his arms around her waist and drew her close to him and in that split second, she knew he was responding to her words, not with more words but through his favorite means of communication which was much more physical.

And pleasurable she discovered again as his mouth closed on her own before she could even react. His lips caressed her own in exploration and her own responded in kind, when his tongue joined in, hers touched his as well. Her heart began speeding up, elation filled her body and wow, well that didn't even begin to describe it.

Finally he broke the contact between them and cupped her stunned face in his hands.

"Does that answer any questions you have about what I'm feeling?"

"Uh….."

He smiled at her speechlessness as she swept her hair back off of her face and looked at him.

"Er…."

He smiled in return.

"You liked it that much?"

She sighed.

"No comment. I plead the Fifth on that one."

He stroked her arms all the way to her shoulders and she shivered. Damn the man had talented hands. He could have been a musician….oh wait in a way he was with the ladies. All the memories flooded back but she had to remain in control.

She had to regain control.

"We need to talk about Shawn and what we're going to do next."

Alexis…all business now, his mouth curved into a smile watching her in action.

"Yeah I know…we've got to figure out a way to resolve this situation…."

She nodded.

"And so you know, this has nothing to do with how much I enjoyed that kiss and what it promised…because there's not going to be anything else."

That made him smile. He sat down and patted the couch closer, next to him.

"Come on, sit down and we'll figure it out…I promise to keep my hands to myself."

She smiled at him and did just that.

"That's fine…because you'll see some Natasha if you don't."

He chuckled.

"I might like that…"

She just stared at him but did move a little closer.

And so they sat down to try to come up with a plan to address the situation with her former fiancé and what to do next.


	9. Chapter 9

The two of them sat together on the couch to think of a way to address the whole hostage taking, runaway bride situation but try as she might, Alexis just couldn't get her mind off of the kiss.

She had been shocked when he had approached her but damn, had it jolted through her body so pleasantly, the remnants she still felt now. Julian just continued trying to strategize as if it had never happened. She so envied men and their ability to compartmentalize everything.

All the men in her life had been like that. Of course not all of them had sat moments later discussing how best to figure out how to deal with a professional hit man for hire with all of the Five Families on the eastern seaboard.

But oh yeah wait, he…they had to focus on business until they worked through the entanglements of the kidnapping. Yes, the wedding might have been aborted by their abrupt departure before she even walked down the aisle but her relationship with the suave businessman who killed people for a living still had been somewhat unresolved at least in the mind of the almost groom. At least completely, because the man was taking to the airwaves and insisting his bride to be had been snatched away from him by a remorseless man who knew her.

A rival mobster but of course Shawn hadn't mentioned that anywhere in his emotional plea for the heartless gun toting kidnapper to deliver her unharmed.

When nothing could be further from the truth because wasn't her groom the one who had been breaking the law? This made how many homicidal boyfriends practically in a row for her, not the best of records.

Julian sitting alongside her looking all suave and sophisticated even though like her he'd dressed down.

She looked over at him now as he wrote a list of tasks for them to carry out for them to put this situation behind them and then what…her lips tingled at the memory. Oh yeah, she definitely wanted more of that not to mention the rest of him.

No, that was her body talking, the one that had betrayed her enough in the past. The rest of her had decided to build a wall against him and it wasn't coming down anytime soon. So what if she physically responded to him, because that's all it was, a physical response.

"Alexis …"

She returned to the present.

"What….oh yeah, it sounds great."

He gave her a curious look.

"Where were you just now?"

She sighed, leaning closer to him.

"Where you are, in the living room planning what to do next," she said.

He nodded and she guessed her answer at least made sense to him. What did the guy expect when he dropped a kiss on her like that, to just tuck it away as some nice memory and pretend it never happened?

That's right though it never happened. No way would she remind herself that it did happen.

"Okay…I think we need to call some of our contacts in P.C.…Sam…Spinelli and clue them in on our plan…"

"Which is…," she said, because she had missed some of that part.

"To first of all find out how the indictment process is going…Now we know the grand jury process is done secretly but there must be some way to get some approximation of how much more time they're going to need."

She nodded.

"That's doable," she said, "If you have a contact at the U.S. Attorney's office," she said, "Didn't you date someone from there, it seems like a Mafioso in hiding like you would get along and we know how you like sleeping with the enemy…"

He shot her a look but didn't respond right away.

"There might be someone…but it's not a woman."

She nodded.

"Okay then, it's just something to think about if you want to go that route…unless you burned your bridges when you started taking over Sonny's territory."

"I think in this case it might still work," he said, "This person hasn't exactly been a model employee."

"Why am I not surprised? Well if it works…"

"I'll see tomorrow..."

Alexis watched as he jotted down another notation and then she continued.

"Okay next…we need to counter this media onslaught that Shawn has done portraying himself as the wronged party…the victim of the ruthless bride-napper."

Julian scoffed.

"That's not difficult; the guy's a hired killer."

"Yeah but that's not official knowledge yet and we don't want to risk the indictment process without proof of his connection to all his bosses."

Julian could see the logic in that because a man like Shawn, he really belonged behind bars in a maximum security prison for the rest of his life but what they had on him so far….tax fraud, racketeering mainly white collar stuff. It'd take much more to make sure he went down for his string of hits that created trails of corpses across portions of the country.

"I'm being painted as some scorned lover of yours," he said, "breaking up a marriage before it even happened."

Alexis mouth turned up in a smile.

"Scorned lover…that's a bit of an overreach don't you think," she said, "I mean that's hardly the case right?"

Julian cleared his throat.

"I mean you do kiss…well but that's not meaning anything right now."

"That's the nicest thing any woman's said to me…the kissing part."

She threw him a knowing look.

"In a while…," he finished, "Especially by a woman who knows her way around kissing herself."

She shrugged.

"What can I say, I went with the moment."

"Now that's modest…"

She sighed.

"Not really Julian because it won't be repeated…can we get back to planning our case of action?"

They did that for some time before Alexis broke to get something else to drink besides Scotch because she had begun to feel a bit too relaxed sitting there which had to be from the alcohol imbibed and not just being around him. Because really she needed to be on her toes sitting so close to him after what had happened. Despite their agreement to keep things on ice or her insistence on it as they focused on the crisis in front of them.

Because she had agreed to be focused on the plan after all, a promise she meant to keep. Still when he had felt so good, his hands on her waist and his mouth…well never mind. Time to get serious before they ran into Shawn during the moments he wasn't playing the wronged fiancé and would be channeling his more ruthless side or the media might show and expose their hiding place as some kind of love nest.

"I think we should give a press conference," Alexis said, "to counter all this bad press describing us as kidnapper and victim…or you as a scorned lover if that's not going to work for you because it seems crazy to me. But you know media works…it's your profession or Derek's at any rate."

Julian considered that stroking his chin thoughtfully ignoring the obvious jab.

"I'd rather be the not scorned lover…"

She just dropped her jaw open when he said that.

"Julian…put the Scotch down like I did and don't write checks your ass can't cash."

He just looked at her nonchalantly.

"I'm not drinking Scotch now."

Oh yeah, she had been doing most of the hitting on the Scotch since they had returned to the beach house for this planning session after being blitzed by the media campaign orchestrated by Shawn or his PR team.

"Well you're not drinking that single barrel bourbon either…"

He smiled.

"No I'm not. I'm taking in the view."

She wanted to throw up her arms at him. Really when he acted like this…it was just to tease her, to rile her up, to get under her skin to get her where he wanted her. Well it wouldn't work…twice shy remember that. More like half a dozen times shy when counting all the train wrecked relationships with men in her life.

"I'm leaving…I'm going to go make myself a sandwich in the kitchen and then lie down a while because I'm feeling tired and this teasing of yours isn't fair. It's not going to work either."

She got up and he watched her go, as she took what was left of the Scotch with her into the kitchen. He settled on the couch and flipped on the television, his eyes widening when he saw the screen.

Carly who had torn into Alexis on her wedding day wore a simple black dress with a string of pearls around her neck and diamond earrings on her ears. She sat there, choking up and was that the glimmer of her tear in her eye. Julian prepared to listen to what she had to say knowing it just had to be good.

"Yes…Phillip, thank you for asking me that…I am just so shocked that some man could crash such a sanctimonious event as a wedding and grab the bride, my future kind of surrogate sister-in-law at gunpoint and drag her away while she screamed for help."

Say what, Julian thought, Alexis hadn't…he sighed, yet another member of that crime committing family standing up and acting like the victim or to get their 15 minutes of attention. But Carly hadn't finished yet.

"I will personally thank the person who delivers Alexis…"

"Alexis doesn't need rescuing," Julian said, without thinking.

It seemed almost as if the woman heard him.

"I mean it…I will personally wrap my arms around that kind heroic person and thank them from the bottom of my heart."

Julian wondered why she didn't just offer up a reward from her generous trust fund from the hotel. The anchor who must be Phil nodded at the angst filled woman.

"Do you or your best friend…Shawn plan to offer any rewards for her return?"

Carly made a face.

"We do not wish to reduce this to being about something petty like squabbling over money nor do we wish to mar the return of our loved one by some sort of feeding frenzy…"

"Oh my God…"

Julian looked behind him and saw Alexis just about ready to drop her plate at the sight in front of her.

"She has never said a kind word to me since I've known her," she said, "On the other hand, she's tried to bribe me, threaten me and harass me and has thrown the fact that she's had every man I liked first in my face..."

"Sounds like a charming lady…"

She snorted.

"I guess you'd know from having slept with her. Look I don't blame you. She should bottle up what she has that attracts men to her first and sell it. Probably make a fortune."

Julian figured that Carly must be playing her own angle in this situation but couldn't figure out right now what it would be, maybe something to do with protecting Shawn or someone else? After all, hadn't she been having an affair with one of his rivals, not to mention their brief dalliance and was she aware that the law was about to catch up with her family including Shawn?

"I mean she almost sounded believable on television just now…almost."

She sat down in a chair with her sandwich on a plate in front of her. She shot him a glance back when she saw him looking at her.

"Did you want one…the fixings are still in the kitchen?"

He shook his head.

"Does she know what he really does? I mean how many families he really works for beside Sonny's?"

Alexis bit into her sandwich with a shrug.

"I doubt she'd care if she did," she said, "but Carly's a bit self-absorbed as they call it and she might not have a clue. She does tend to idealize Shawn and everyone tied with Sonny…or just any sociopath looking for a champion…like Franco."

"She's in for the shock of her life if she doesn't know," Julian said, "because some of his employers are enemies of Sonny's and this could blow back on all of them including her."

Alexis knew she should have been shocked but seriously she wasn't anymore. She also didn't give a rat's ass about Carly.

"Were they rivals of his family that were also interested in your territory?"

"Nah…one of them, the Scalia clan, they were representing some workers at one of the plants one of the capos owns…trying to get better conditions."

She rubbed her forehead.

"Shawn came back from some trip back east with a necklace for me, made out of diamonds surrounded by emeralds…he knew how much I liked them but I could never wear it…it just didn't feel right."

Julian watched her face which had frowned when she had recalled that memory, of the man she thought she had at least needed if not loved and it turned out she hadn't even known. She returned back to her sandwich chewing it thoughtfully.

"I meant what I said," he told her, "that you didn't deserve this and when this is all over…"

She looked at him suddenly.

"Julian…no…when this is all over, I'm going back to my girls and Danny and figuring out how to get a job in a post-Mafia PC."

The word that hung between them now that she had said it…what did he have planned anyway and did she really want to know?

"There won't be any room for you there Julian."

He shook his head.

"Alexis there's a lot unresolved between us that we need to discuss," he said, "I really am looking forward to discovering how much."

She rolled her eyes at him.

"Seriously I don't know if I'll be up for it after this adventure."

Those eyebrows of his moved on their own volition again, a sure sign he had mischief in mind. She moved out of his reach and if he noticed, he didn't let on.

"I think there's ways of persuading you."

Her brow arched up.

"Really…I don't see any and I really don't think so."

He didn't seem perturbed.

"Oh you'll do more than think about it," he said, "I'll bet all my money on that."

She furrowed her brows considering that because he did have quite a bit.

"I'll think about whether I'll take that wager," she said, "but you might lose…besides if the feds freeze all your bank accounts well then your talk is cheap."

He shook his head.

"I think in the end, we'll both come out winners," he said, "Now excuse me while I go make myself a sandwich."

He got up to go to the kitchen and her eyes followed him, what was he really up to now?


	10. Chapter 10

Alexis threw her lasso up to where she hoped it would rope the turret of the castle which loomed in front of her. She had ridden her palomino stallion up to the dirt road leading up to the huge building surrounded by a moat. One filled with crocodiles or piranhas or something equally toothy that would take a bite or more out of any poor soul that miscalculated the trajectory to latch onto the castle and rappel up the stone face to the tower on top.

She took a step back and then took a deep breath. No guards dressed in impressive armor looked over the edge of the castle for any invaders or even interlopers. She had been prepared with what was this in her hand, a cross bow? She didn't know how to use one did she? She must, why would she have it with her. My how confusing things had gotten in this journey, but she couldn't dwell on that.

She had a man to rescue who had been held prisoner by a ruthless princess who wanted to be queen and she needed a consort to do that, anyone with a pulse would satisfy under the rather bizarre codicil of her father's will.

Alexis tried not to think about the immense danger that awaited her even if she made it successfully to the top and she calculated the distance once more in her head as she drew her arm back to toss the rope to where it could catch on the turret. She watched, shielding her face against the sun as she watched it nearly fall short but then somehow, it caught the turret…well one of the pointy edges of it anyway. She pulled the rope to test its hold up above and satisfied that it would support her weight, she began her tedious climb up the face of the 20 foot wall.

Where were the guards anyway? Shouldn't the castle be guarded with if not guards, a fire breathing dragon or two? A watch dog, or at least the queen's lord in waiting? But she couldn't see anyone up above her or on the ground below her and she had to keep on going.

Time was a wasting.

Her muscles tensed and began to cramp in her legs as she hauled herself up the side of the castle and finally she reached the top and without looking down, she hoisted herself over and dropped onto the tower. She unhooked herself from the rope and went to peer into the tower.

Inside the window, she saw him sitting on the bed, the man that had been chosen by the future queen to be her consort and damn, the woman had some serious good taste even if she had been flawed in nearly every other way. She found the door locked so she knocked on the window. He looked up and her eyes widened at the sight.

Julian?

Oh my, he sat there dressed in medieval britches and a long shirt, his face handsome framed with dark hair and wearing a mustache and some serious five o'clock shadow. He looked a little tired but still appeared to be every inch the man she had just been talking to a few moments ago. She just couldn't figure out why he was inside this tower. But then again, she didn't know why she was here.

He smiled at the sight of her and went over to help her open the window so she could crawl inside, putting the crossbow she had slung over her shoulder on the floor.

"Julian…what are you doing here?"

He got up and just shook his head.

"It's Queen Dianne, she needs to marry and produce a heir before she can be anointed queen of the kingdom."

Alexis remembered seeing the stylish woman dressed all in leather down to a whip attached to her hip, prone to temper tantrums during royal processions through the village where she worked as a barrister of sorts to represent villagers when they appealed their scheduled beheadings or time in the stocks before a rather biased judge, the queen herself.

"We have to get you out of here."

"There's no escape," he said, "The wedding is set for the hour before sunset which is…"

Alexis looked out the window and estimated that there were only several hours until that time which left little to act.

"We have time..but you're going to have to help me…"

Instead he drew her into his arms and his lips brushed against her own and she forgot about the pending rescue. His lips clung to hers as he placed his hands on her face while he worshiped her mouth.

"Julian…"

But he ignored her running his hands beneath her tunic, touching bare skin which sizzled under his fingers. She broke the kiss and placed her hands on his wrists.

"We can't do this," she said, "We have to get out of here quickly…"

He pulled off his shirt and showed off his impressive muscular chest sprinkled with dark hair…the man kept in shape doing something…maybe engaging in sword duels when he hadn't been pushing the wheel back in the village.

"I can't leave…you're too damn beautiful…"

She felt his fingers in her hair after he had pulled his hands from her grasp and she looked at his chest right within reach before she sighed, and began stroking it with her hands as they kissed again….

"What is this…."

A shrilly voice broke their interlude and they turned to see Queen Dianne shooting deadly lasers at them with her eyes.

"Noooo….," Alexis said before…

* * *

She woke up on the couch with a start wondering how she got here…which was, oh yeah the secluded beach house where she and Julian had been staying. She must have been dreaming because she and he…had been somewhere else in very different clothing…in each other's arms.

Where was the star of her latest dream anyway?

"Julian…"

He looked over at her from where he sat working on a computer.

"I'm here…you must have been having some dream."

She nodded back at him, struggling to sit up but at least feeling more refreshed.

"Yeah…must have been from the Scotch…"

He looked over at the mostly empty bottle and raised his brows.

"Yeah I'd say so," he said, "but it sounded exciting and somewhat…passionate?"

Her skin flushed, how in the hell did he know that? Lucky guess on his part?

"How…"

He smiled back at her.

"Did you ever know you talk in your sleep?"

She furrowed her brow trying to remember.

"No…what did I say…nothing embarrassing I hope."

He shook his head.

"Not that I'm not very flattered by what you did say," he said, "You kept telling me that we couldn't…well I guess one of us was wearing less in your dream."

She frowned.

"Oh god…It was just a silly dream. I was rescuing you from an evil queen…I think she was that rival of mine and sometimes friend Dianne…and you started getting a bit amorous."

His brows arched at that.

"Sounds like a wonderful dream…how far did we get?"

She shot him a pointed look.

"I'm not saying…but I woke up just in time."

He settled back in his chair.

"That's too bad," he said, "because it would have been great between us."

She shook her head.

"Julian it's just a dream, there wouldn't have been anything going on between us. Not really."

He nodded.

"Yes that's right, because dreams are wish fulfillment that we engage in including what we don't dare think about when we're awake."

"How do you know that?"

"Because I took psych at Harvard," he said, "and we studied dreams. Freudian, Jungian and sometimes just ordinary dreams."

She sighed.

"I know what you're doing but it's not true," she said, "A part of me…just forgot how foolish I felt after you played me that's all. When I woke up it all came back to me soon enough."

"What's going to happen with us once we're done with this," Julian said, "is going to change your mind about everything."

Damn, he sounded so sure of himself, how could that be when her own feelings were tangled in such a contentious knot, one that she felt in the pit of her stomach when she was around him.

"There might not be anything," she said, "I don't ever want to feel the way I did again."

He narrowed his eyes at her hearing the emotions in her voice.

"We won't…it will be much better with us than it's ever been."

She shook her head and got off the couch.

"Just forget it. I am so not going there with you. I'm going to do whatever it takes to get my life back and figure out what to do next."

"You sound sure about that?"

"I am…look you're the one who walled off parts of your life," she said, "I guess some of us were a little late to seeing the real you in action."

"I don't think so," he said, "The only wall is the one that you're trying to put up now."

She sighed, and continued walking.

"That's not true but I'm not getting into this with you," she said, "How's your investigating going?"

He looked up at her from the computer.

"While you were napping, I called my contact and he's going to meet us at the diner later on," Julian said, "Shawn did decide to come up with a hefty reward for your safe return after all."

"What did Carly have to say about that," Alexis said, "I don't imagine she was thrilled."

Julian clicked some keys on his computer.

"They've also opened up another investigation into your fiancé for two killings in Miami about six months ago."

She nodded.

"I remember…he said he had some friends there that he often stayed at to escape the rigors of the business...how could I have been so gullible?"

Julian believed she was being way too hard on herself. After all, the guy had been smooth enough to pull this identify of himself as a hardworking, blue collar business man who managed a popular diner very well. The killings were done discreetly, mostly involving members of society that not many people cared about and he had slipped away quickly enough from the scene of his jobs to get paid.

"He's under investigation in 10 cities in five states and also in Mexico, Canada and Brazil as well."

She sighed at the news.

"Wow, I wonder where he found the time for our relationship. Either time."

"The good news is that the walls are closing all around him and they'll indict him soon enough I suspect," Julian said, "I called that friend of mine with the federal prosecutors and he didn't say much but that they were looking at a list of players in a sweeping probe."

"That's vague…did he miss you at all?"

Julian just looked at her.

"I didn't ask… …we were both very busy people with mostly different agendas."

"I'm not saying anything," Alexis said, "Like I said, I envy you that...separating them all out."

He shook his head at her and then returned to his work and she went to the kitchen. She had to get away from him because her dream still lingered as did the sensations that it had generated in her body. Looking at him just then had caused her to go weak in the knees because in the dream…

She sighed, at the complexity of her life. Here she had been engaged just earlier this week, about to walk down the aisle before running off with Julian and now she had these feelings for him, that felt like they had been kept under wraps for far too long, and she didn't know how she would rein them in but knew she had to do that. She had told herself she was done with him for all his lies, the secrets he'd kept from both her and Sam just to…well it made the revelation that he was also a mobster seem not as pressing.

It was the personal betrayals that impacted her the most in her life beginning when she'd been a little girl on Cassadine Island, tucked away so the evil villains couldn't find her.

Suddenly, her thoughts were interrupted by a knock on the front door. She walked out to the living room and Julian had motioned for her to be quiet. Perhaps it was a neighbor who might not pursue it further if they believed the house to be empty…so they waited.

But then came more knocks and Julian and Alexis knew then that someone already knew that the house was occupied and perhaps even by who.


	11. Chapter 11

Alexis and Julian looked at each other and then at the door. Should they just wait before answering, maybe the person on the other side of it would figure no one was home and then go away, leaving them.

But then the knocks resumed and Alexis sighed.

"I guess they figure someone's here."

Julian nodded, thinking quickly. Maybe it was just one of the neighbors and they had their cover story ready. She went over and opened it and found a young woman standing there with a basket.

"Hi, you must be the house sitters," she said, "I'm Ivory, from next door. I brought you some things I baked this afternoon…fresh muffins and some leftover pot roast."

Julian and Alexis glanced at each other again. The woman looked harmless enough but you could never be sure and given that they were hiding out, they had to exercise caution when dealing with strangers. How did they know that Ivory wasn't really someone who had been sent to find them by Shawn or other members of the five families?

But then again, the leftovers smelled pretty good and Alexis took the basket from Ivory and took it into the kitchen. Julian looked at her, trying to figure out how to figure out exactly who she was and why she had come here.

"So how long are you…house sitting?"

Julian scratched his jaw.

"Oh a week…maybe two…our friends aren't sure when they're coming back," he said, "We've been enjoying the time together."

Ivory narrowed her eyes.

"You don't look married…"

"No we aren't," he said, then winked at her, "but I'm working on it. She's a little bit hesitant on making a commitment."

"I'm what….?"

Julian blinked as he looked to see Alexis come up behind him with her arms folded.

"Oh you're back…"

She tilted her face at the both of them.

"I've always been here…I've just been in the kitchen putting away that nice food," she said, "that Ivory was so thoughtful to bring us."

He nodded.

"Was I interrupting anything," Ivory asked.

Alexis smiled.

"Oh no…why don't you sit down and join us for some coffee…?"

Ivory shook her head.

"I've got to some errands but thanks for the invite," she said, "Maybe I'll see you around…there's a lot to do here…concerts…town picnics and bazaar sales…things like that."

"Sounds lovely," Alexis said, "We might have to check some of those out won't we sweetheart?"

Julian had to keep from raising his brow at her choice of words.

"Yeah…sure…"

Ivory smiled at them again and then walked out the front door and after she left, Alexis looked over at Julian.

"You laid this couple thing on her a bit thick didn't you?"

Julian didn't appear the least apologetic.

"Look we need it as an alibi to explain why we're here," he said, "As long as we don't make it too complicated."

"It's already getting to be that," Alexis said, "and I'm not the one who shared that with a stranger."

Julian looked bemused as she sat down on the couch.

"She's probably really just a friendly neighbor," he said, "Nothing to worry about."

Alexis stretched out.

"You're probably right," she said, "I'm worried that we're going to get discovered before we make our own move."

Julian joined her on the couch.

"I'm sure that while they're probably looking for us, they aren't around here."

"What makes you so sure?"

He looked over at her.

"They'd probably call a press conference announcing it. Which is what we planned to do so we'd better get on it."

She sighed.

"You might be right about that," she said, "So when are we meeting this friend of yours?"

"Tonight at a Chinese restaurant in the village…it's a bit off the beaten path."

She nodded.

"I hope he's got some good ideas….Really I'd rather not be here, I'd rather be back at PC with my family even if it does mean getting interrogated by feds or subpoenaed to the grand jury."

Julian shrugged.

"I wouldn't call it stuck," he said, "Maybe a long overdue vacation?"

She chuckled at that.

"It's definitely been interesting spending this time with you despite everything," she said, "Just when you think you really know someone, he helps you escape your own wedding."

"That was pretty exciting," Julian agreed, "We'll have to think of something to top it."

Alexis raised her brow.

"I don't think you'd like what I'm thinking Julian but you'll have your hands full just avoiding a prison cell next to Sonny," she said, "There's a certain irony to that."

His face fell.

"You'd enjoy that?"

She thought about it.

"I'm sure PCPD's not going to be able to do it with Dante being investigated but I'm sure Anna will help the feds coming after you. For some reason she doesn't seem to like you much."

He didn't say anything to that and she didn't expect it.

"But no, I probably wouldn't enjoy watching either father of my daughters who are mobsters go to prison and we'll just leave it at that."

Julian thought that she looked resolute enough despite everything going on around them. His heart skipped a beat.

"Are you sure about that?"

She nodded.

"Yeah I think so," she said, "Now, we have to be in the proper state of mind when we meet with…your friend so I intend to do some relaxing."

"I've got some ideas on how to do that."

She looked directly at him, a faint curve of a smile on her face.

"I'm sure you do but I'm talking about reading a book or taking a walk, something like that. It's calm right now, take advantage of that.

Julian thought that left plenty of opportunity for them to wile away the hours in the meantime, she'd read him well but Alexis apparently had other plans.

She stood up and stretched her arms.

"I'm heading to the beach to get some sun," she said, "You can join me if you'd like."

His facial expression told her what which option he liked.

Later, she spread her towel on the beach before lying down with her novel pretty close to where the waves broke on shore. The tide would rise later on but she had plenty of time to enjoy the perfect spot to relax, as she had been doing since they had been staying at the beach house. It had been great to get away from Shawn and the mess surrounding their wedding. But if Julian hadn't crashed the estate just hours before the ceremony what would she have done, would she have married a man who turned out to be a hired killer?

She would like to have said not but that's exactly what she had been planning to do despite having some misgivings about it.

"Want some company?"

She looked up to see him with carrying a towel while dressed in those breathtaking black Speedos she enjoyed so much. She had to look away when he sat down beside her before reminding herself that he

Alexis said, "I think maybe I'd like to move here."

Julian's brow rose.

"Are you serious?"

"It's so beautiful out here,"

"Really…you'd leave everything you built in PC behind?"

She pondered his question.

"Maybe…I liked living there but I think I'm over it…I just would like to get away from it."

Julian heard the wistful tone in her voice.

"You could commute from here…though it's a bit of a drive," he said, "or buy a Lear jet."

She smiled.

"I might do that though I'll need more billable hours for the jet but maybe it's time to make a clean break."

"You really want that kind of change," he asked.

She bit her lip and nodded.

"Yeah I've been doing a lot of thinking and god, after I nearly married a hit man among my other epic fails, I think I need to sit back and reevaluate where I'm going in my life."

He sighed.

"I think you were going in a pretty good direction…except for the detour into marriage of course."

She didn't bristle at his assessment like she thought she might.

"Oh so you think because you and I…no you're wrong about that. You're in the mistake column pal and don't you forget it."

He looked out into the sparkling waters of the ocean.

"If I am, I'd like to make it up to you. Why don't we start from scratch like we did that night at the Floating Rib?"

She shot him a look.

"No Julian…because weren't you Derek back then? I kind of liked him. I still haven't made my mind up about you so maybe we'd better stick to our plan here."

"Okay then, my friend did contact me and said he's going through all that he's gotten on Shawn's employers and you know Spinelli and Sam's working on their end."

She reached for some more sunscreen.

"She's quite a woman, our daughter."

She smiled at him despite herself. Even if he was pointing out the obvious.

"Don't I know it?"

His facial expression changed, grew more thoughtful. She knew by now that he'd had plastic surgery done since they first met and that's why among other reasons she hadn't recognized him. Well, not entirely true because on some level she did because not every part of a person could be erased or redrawn by a surgeon.

"I wish I'd seen her growing up…"

She narrowed her eyes.

"So do I. I'll always regret that but it's not going to change anything. I'm just glad that we found each other even though it was real rough for a while."

Julian closed his eyes unable to even contemplate that reality.

"I wish I'd known sooner."

Not the first time he'd said that to her.

"Maybe that wouldn't have been such a good thing," she said, "You led a violent life Julian by choice. You were young yourself. What would you have done? I mean you think your family's tough but mine would have made short work of you…and maybe them too."

He resisted that but she'd seemed so adamant. He'd heard of the Cassadines' rep but the Jeromes weren't pushovers.

And that's when she told herself she should have been more vigilant at figuring out that the man had something to hide, a part of himself clearly had been withheld from her. She had tried to probe a little bit, gently but he hadn't said very much. Then when the reveal came…it just reminded her of her cast of ex-boyfriends.

She just lay on her towel and picked up her novel, to start reading it. Julian just looked at her and stood up to go out into the ocean for a brief swim. He enjoyed swimming in the ocean, taking long swims along the coast for an hour at a time before washing back on shore to eat a huge breakfast.

Back in his younger days.

He broke cleanly into the surf and started moving away with clean, sure strokes. Julian seemed so sure about everything in his life, until the day he realized he wasn't certain of anything at all.

* * *

Later, after they had finished up and had showered back at the beach house, they headed to meet Julian's friend at the diner. After parking the car, they headed into the place and saw him sitting with sunglasses in the back booth. He looked up and smiled at them as they slid into the seat opposite him. Alexis' eyes widened. Damn it if she wasn't looking at Mitchell Ratcliffe, aka Coleman.

"Son of a…"

He gave her a little wave.

"Nice to see you too Alexis…"

She narrowed her eyes.

"You and…Julian are friends?"

Coleman shrugged.

"Not really but we can put that aside to work on a common cause," he said, "I've always liked you Alexis…you're a hell of a woman though you always hid that part of yourself though not all of the time."

Her face flushed. Was he going to fire off a litany of the times in Coleman's bar involving a certain pool table…

"Coleman…don't you dare."

He chuckled and then turned to Julian all business.

"You're alone…"

Coleman nodded.

"I thought it would be better this way…the fewer people know…"

"Yeah…we're kind of fugitives right now."

Coleman sipped his iced tea.

"The police aren't really actively involved in the search," he said, "They sense at least that Shawn's not the grieving or jilted fiancé that he appears to be."

"It's reassuring that they've given this some thought," Alexis observed.

"But Shawn and Carly, are hitting every talk show in L.A. getting airtime to paint you as a jilted ex-lover crashing the wedding and abducting the bride at gunpoint…"

"Didn't happen…though there was a gun involved…actually more than one of them."

Coleman nodded before continuing.

"They believe that Alexis is emotionally distraught, perhaps even imbalanced and incapable of making decisions on her own."

She picked up a menu.

"So they're trying to get me institutionalized?"

Coleman appeared somber when the waitress came to take their orders.

"That might be part of the plan."

Alexis shook his head.

"Why do they always assume when a woman leaves her fiancé that it's because there's something wrong with her?"

Coleman looked at Julian.

"I mean that usually means there's something wrong with the guy," she said, "I think I'm going to try to get some equal time so that I can get the truth out about what's really going on here."

"I don't know if that's wise Alexis..if there are police involved, they might come to the studio during the interview."

She sighed.

"Julian…I don't care. I want equal time on this one. No one's going to want to hire a lawyer with an institutionalization on her record but more importantly, Ric might use it as an excuse to take Molly away from me."

Julian shook his head.

"That's not going to happen. So Coleman you think you can do it?"

Coleman nodded.

"It might work…though maybe we could arrange a remote interview and not disclose your location to the talk show."

"You mean a phone in," Julian asked.

"Possibly or through web cam…"

Alexis brightened.

"That sounds like a great idea," she said, "If it's encrypted no one will be able to find us."

"I don't know about that," Julian warned, "Shawn or certainly one of his bosses can probably afford the best."

Alexis considered that possibility but they had to try it because her ex-fiancé and his crew had already taken a huge lead with the war on words and they needed at least to keep pace and get the truth out there.

Julian read her face and sighed.

"Okay, we'll go back to the beach house and set something up," he said, "There's a guy out here named Spinelli who knows a lot about media and computers who can help us."

Alexis nodded. Spinelli had helped her and her family in different ways over the years. Almost as if he were one of them.

"Let's do it…"

And they spent the rest of their time in the diner deciding how to do just that.


	12. Chapter 12

Alexis drove the Ferrari like it was zooming around a raceway while she traveled down the highway to meet up with Spinelli, the man who was a whizz with computers and would help them break the code…no wait a minute, actually he was going to help them interface with the media because of course neither of them had any people skills. Well, not enough of them to undo the damage to their reputations that the media blitz carried out by Shawn and Carly had already accomplished.

After all, she had looked at a morning talk show just that morning while sipping on some java and had seen some redheaded news anchor with a gleam in her eyes airing out what she thought had been some dirty laundry. But really, Alexis had not been some helpless victim, nor was she a two-timing, gold digging harlot. Julian of course wasn't a bride-nabber nor was he a gigolo poaching on another man's turf. But what kind of image could they project…oh yeah the truth…that Shawn was a no-good professional assassin and had kept that rather crucial information about himself about still being in the biz under wraps during his whirlwind courtship of Alexis

"Alexis …do you think you're going a little bit fast?"

She smiled at him as they whizzed around a curve.

"Relax Julian…you know when I was living in New York City, I spent a summer going out with an Indy racer…"

Oh she remembered that summer fling all too well. Randy loved fast cars and even faster women and she hadn't been all that fast but when they had been together, va-voom! She looked over at Julian who shouldn't talk really because judging by how he drove, he probably had more speeding tickets under at least two different names than she did, so he should just settle down and let her drive.

"Yeah …and I don't know what it is that you did but he moved up three positions in the standings on that Monaco circuit."

She smiled widely because yes indeed, Randy had and maybe she had a hand in it, she thought as she turned off the street and onto a gravely single-laned road that wound around a couple hairpin turns which she took on deftly.

"You know if lawyering ever doesn't do it for me," she said, "I think I'll take up auto racing."

Julian's eyes widened just a little bit at that.

"Are you sure that's a wise choice," he said, "Besides I'd miss you a lot."

She smiled again at him.

"That's really sweet of you to say that," she said, "By the way, I think Ava…your dear sister…was on television this morning making an emotional appeal for you to return to PC…to turn yourself in or something like that."

Julian furrowed his brow.

"She's…she thinks she's going to take over the organization that we set up…"

Alexis turned into what looked like a small parking area in front of a wooden cabin.

"Well, you know what they say possession is nine-tenths the law isn't it?"

"I heard that said before but I did most of the ground work…"

She glanced at him.

"Julian it's over in PC for all of you and unless you want to pack up your mafia unit and go off to greener pastures…then live with it."

He focused on the road. Alexis continued talking.

"Ava's being…Ava but I told her if she lays one talon on Sam or any of my family, she's already a dead woman."

He did remember that. No one messed with the woman next to him and family. Ava had actually backed down and said she had to get her hair done.

Alexis parked the car and they prepared to get out of it. Sad to leave it even for a little while actually. It had been clever of Coleman to suggest that they swap vehicles so that no one would be looking for them in this one. Julian hadn't driven it much and she had fantasized about driving it more than she could count. But the reality had even been better than what she imagined. She wondered if that were true about a couple of other things as well…then thought she should stick to sleek and well-muscled cars.

"Alexis…I see we both got her alive and in one piece."

She just shot him a look as they exited the car.

They headed to the front door and after they rung it, Damien Spinelli stood there looking at them puzzled.

"Hi…Coleman said you'd be expecting us."

Suddenly comprehension hit Spinelli's face.

"Ah yes, come right on in," he said, "The place is a little bit chaotic but there's some space in the living room."

Alexis and Julian looked around and sure enough, there were computers, cameras and other technological gizmos everywhere, not to mention bookshelves overfilled with books on different topics.

There was also a crib and baby toys which told Alexis that Little Georgie had come by for a visit.

He pointed out some chairs for them to sit down and he brought out what looked like some iced tea and poured it into glasses for them. They sipped politely and found out it didn't taste so bad.

"So what do you need," Spinelli said, "Coleman wasn't too specific…something about you needing to define a better media image."

Alexis nodded.

"You see…we've been presented by others as being far different than who we are in reality…we just want to get the truth out there to the public."

Spinelli crossed his arms, watching them carefully.

"Oh yes, the bridezilla and the man who rustled her," he said.

Alexis gave him a startled look.

"Excuse me?"

Spinelli picked up a notepad and a pen and prepared to start writing.

"That's the most recent news going around about what happened at the wedding that never happened."

Alexis sighed.

"That's not what happened at all…you see… you know my fiancé, Shawn, kills people for a living and well, he wined and dined me and then he proposed to me and I said yes…but he never really told me about keeping his old job…except that he traveled on business a lot."

"You mean you nearly married an assassin for hire who was always an assassin for hire and always will be an agent of death," Spinelli said, "Surely you must have seen some signs…"

Alexis rolled her eyes.

"He just seemed like he'd really changed and…there were other complications…but sometimes I wonder if there is really such a thing."

Spinelli reached over to pat her on the shoulder.

"You know I have a son you could meet…"

Julian interrupted.

"We need to figure out what to issue as a statement to the press," he said, "I'm not sure a press conference will do it."

Spinelli nodded.

"Too much to rehabilitate and too little time to do it," he said.

Julian and Alexis just looked at each other.

"But you could appear via satellite from the studio I have in the back on one of the local talk shows," Spinelli said, "I'll just give my pal Joey a call…I believe you met him."

Julian drew a blank.

"Joey?"

Oh _that _Joey, Alexis thought, remembering that case they had solved from a while back.

"He's a producer now with the _Llanview Daily Story _and he'll help with the technical side of the broadcast."

Alexis looked at Julian again.

"That sounds good, what do you think?"

Julian just nodded, hoping this would work..

Alexis turned to Spinelli.

"All right, we'll be back tomorrow," she said, "Give us a call with the time."

Spinelli nodded.

"Will do that and you can spend some of the time thinking about what you want the public to know about the two of you…"

Alexis didn't know if she wanted everyone to know, considering herself a private person and she definitely wasn't advertising how she felt about…Julian these days. It must be the adrenalin rush of escaping from a wedding with gunfire following them and being in close quarters hiding out in such a lovely place that perhaps would

"We'll see you tomorrow," Julian said, getting up and glanced at Alexis.

She looked at him sideways and they left together.

* * *

Heading back to the beach house left Alexis some time to think about what Spinelli had said to them. She knew that she certainly didn't want people to view her as a victim in all this…well actually she didn't care what they thought but Julian hadn't been kidnapping her for some nefarious purpose or because he had been jealous of Shawn but because he had been concerned about her marrying a murderer. If Julian hadn't been there…god she might have walked down the aisle with him and she'd be on the honeymoon right now…with a killer. Instead, she was camped out with another one.

She could go crazy thinking about it and she looked over at Julian who sat shotgun in the Ferrari that she drove back.

"What do you want your image to be," she asked him.

He glanced over at her and smiled.

"I'm the infamous bride-napper who couldn't stand to see you walking down the aisle with anyone else so I resorted to some rather desperate measures."

Her brow arched.

"Oh really…I guess I could play along with that," she said, "that I only agreed to marry Shawn because you and me…we could never get it to work."

"Did we even try?"

She kept her focus on the highway.

"Well no …there was no point. We're just too different and one of us used the other to get what he wanted and the other didn't like it much. Still, we need to sell a story here to prepare for this interview."

He nodded.

"Okay…but why don't we do that over some dinner out on the beach," he said, "We could cook some steaks and get some wine and make it a working dinner."

She considered that carefully, reading something in his eyes that made her pause. What was he really up to, she wondered and did she really care? Besides she was getting hungry again, must be all this ocean air.

They turned off the highway making sure no one was tailing them and they were indeed alone and they reached the beach house and after getting out, they walked inside the residence and Alexis dropped herself on the couch.

"You are going to do the cooking?"

Julian sat down beside her on the couch.

"I will if you do the vegetables."

She nodded, thinking that sounded fair enough because she knew a couple of great recipes that she often made when she kicked her daughters out of the kitchen and cooked a meal."

"Do you really think we're going to get much work done sitting on the beach," she asked, "The interview's tomorrow and we don't even have our stories straight yet."

Julian smiled stretching out.

"I think we'll do just fine," he said, "and we'll work it all out one way or another."

She considered that carefully.

"Okay what's the dress," she said, "Will casual be fine?"

"Casual will be great," he said, "Some great food, great scenery and we'll do some brainstorming okay?"

That sounded just fine to her. Though if they were going to put together a portrait of some star-crossed lovers with one of them turned kidnapper deal she wasn't sure that would work. She sighed, just thinking that she needed to get a grip and find something else to occupy her mind besides wanting to kill him.

After this episode was over, she was going back to PC. and do some serious reexamination of her life.

They cooked together in the kitchen, he getting the steaks just right while she sliced and diced several vegetables, put them in light oil in the pan and stir fried them. The wine they found back in the collection in the basement of the house and along with it, a nice patterned blanket perfect for a picnic on the beach.

After they carried their plates of food and supplies to their favorite spot, she spread out the blanket and they sat on it to start eating. Both were starving and made short work of the meal and then started really working on the wine. Alexis felt herself loosen up and she noticed that he seemed content as well.

"So what was our relationship like," she asked him.

He pursed his lips.

"Well we didn't get together until…recently but it was pretty intense."

"It would have to be if it's so short and sweet Julian…"

Mischief colored his eyes.

"I don't know if I'd call it sweet," he said, "But just when things were going so well, we…"

Alexis settled onto the blanket.

"We broke up," she said, "Was it a big huge fight or was it the little things adding up like someone not being honest about himself…starting with his name?"

Julian tilted his head, seeing the minefield ahead.

"I'm not sure of that part," he said, "I guess we just seemed to work out well and then…the fight."

She rubbed her forehead.

"Okay that might work…but if we fought and broke up, why'd you tote a gun at a wedding to get me back?"

That made him pause for a moment and she enjoyed watching him think of a scenario dressed in his faded jeans and jersey shirt.

"I guess I realized that I might have been too late in revealing some important facts," he said, "and that probably was a mistake."

Alexis tilted her face.

"You think? I did find out just in time before…well I got more drawn into it and could feel more foolish. I won't have any trouble selling that in an interview."

Julian sipped his wine.

"Alexis…I didn't know about you and Sam."

She shook her head.

"No…let's not go there now," she said, "Let's stick to the interview tomorrow so we get our stories straight and offset what Shawn and Carly have done."

Julian considered that while watching her look out into the ocean dressed in her jeans and a cotton blouse. Her dark wavy hair settling on her shoulders, damn she looked beautiful. Suddenly it seemed that it wouldn't be difficult to play the roles they were creating for themselves after all. Maybe because there was some reality injected into them?

He gazed into her eyes and wondered what thoughts moved her, and then he leaned closer to her and kissed her.


	13. Chapter 13

His lips felt soft on her own at first and she enjoyed that, and when he wrapped his arms around her, she didn't move away. Because she really didn't want to do that, not when it felt so arousing. He ran his fingers through her hair and she felt warmth spread through her.

Then she remembered something and she did pull away from him, slowly.

"We're not doing this..."

He tried to slow his breathing down.

"We just did Alexis...unless you're somewhere else."

Alexis looked back at him because she had known what came over her. That she had wanted to kiss him back because she just couldn't help herself right? At least for that moment but she pulled herself out of it.

"It's just us being in such close proximity I think," she said, "and all the excitement around us…It's making us do…well me do things I wouldn't normally."

Julian listened to her rationalize what had happened and her belief that she had read the situation and himself correctly.

"I know…but we're hanging out together at a beautiful beach and…"

She got up and brushed the sand off of her pants.

"I got it," she said, "See you later…"

He looked at her dismayed.

"What's the matter?"

She folded her arms looking down at him.

"Nothing…I just…I've seen you in action, heard the same words and you only mean them for the night or the week whether you're this person or that person…but nothing much longer than that and that's not what I want…to become another woman on your list of people to use to get closer to your enemies."

"Alexis you could never be just another woman…"

"That's what the other men on that list said too," she said, "all of them except Sonny of course."

Julian's frowned and she tried not to smile but he had to know where she stood on this with him.

"Okay…then just forget I even brought it up…"

She studied him.

"I think we should just focus on getting out of this situation," she said, "I have a life to get back to when I'm done rectifying this mistake and you...have to figure out what to do with your business."

Julian furrowed his brow at that declaration but he caught her meaning.

"So what are you interested in then counselor?"

She looked directly at him.

"I'm going to be working on my part of the interview and I suggest you work on yours."

His brows rose at that admission and she sighed, thinking in with a penny, in with a pound.

"Shawn and Carly laid down the gauntlet and I don't want to let them get away with it."

"They won't…"

"I want to make sure of it," she said, "My ex Ric is already trying to take Molly away and Christina doesn't even want to come back home to PC what with the feds coming after her father."

He sighed and stood up.

"I can help you."

She folded her arms at him.

"You'll make it worse Julian. If Shawn nearly got my daughter killed, you and your men…your sister put other people's lives in jeopardy. Morgan's going to need so much therapy to get his life back because of your sister."

Sonny's youngest son had turned state's evidence against just about everyone, wanting no part of anyone in PC. Though he and Michael had started repairing their fractured relationship though that hadn't been apparent at the almost wedding.

"I know what I did. I've got my own decisions to make."

She softened a bit.

"I know and I'm not judging you. I think a lot of us have to do some reevaluating now that everything's about to change."

He couldn't deny that the face of PC might be altered forever and as for him and his sister's role in that…

"Maybe you could do what you wanted to do when you were younger," she said, "Go legit. Spend some more time getting to know Sam and Danny. They're the best thing that happened to you."

"I know…and you played a big part in that."

"I did but what mattered more was my connection to Sonny."

He heard the mixture of weariness in her voice, mixed with anger. Maybe now wasn't the best time to talk about their relationship.

"I mean that's why you went after Carly and Olivia…they were the two closest," she said, "you were hitting me up for information on my relationship with him and I was only too eager to tell you…"

"Yes you were…"

"Sleep deprived…giddy about my grandson's life being saved by someone I thought was a stranger. I gave you all the information you needed."

He paused.

"What you told me made it clear that you didn't have close ties like the other women who associated with him…"

She arched a brow.

"That must have been disappointing for you."

"No…I was relieved. Yes I did pursue the other two but you weren't a part of that."

"But you…"

"I did what I wanted to do with you and Sam," he said, "I wish it could have been more. I was trying to keep it part from the business."

She looked at him ruefully.

"It never works like you think."

He sighed.

"I should have realized that from the first time."

She felt like walking away at that point, back to the house just leaving him standing there but she bit the bullet and decided to stop running.

"What is it that you want?"

Waiting for him to form an answer, she tried not to put much into it.

"You."

Did she just hear him right? She blinked her eyes at that revelation but he had looked her in the eye when he said it, not hiding anything.

"Why…I mean after what you did."

"I think we've both done a lot of soul searching since then," he said, "I know I've been doing it but that part of it never changed."

"Then why?"

He sighed.

"In the beginning it was all about getting Sonny and his territory but I didn't know about you and Sam…you two really messed things up for me and as much as I went after Sonny's operation, I found myself appreciating the unexpected complications more," Julian said, "I'm sorry if I made it sound that's what I wanted from you was as some sort of pawn."

Alexis didn't know if she'd exactly call it that, because she had believed she'd just been a means to an end that had played along when she should have known better. She had decided to move on and Shawn had been part of that decision, she realized now. But not in a good way. Still this latest development was way too much for her to process and she decided she needed some time to think…alone.

"Will you excuse me," she said, "because you've really given me a lot to think about and I just need to do that…and get ready for Spinelli's friend tomorrow."

He smiled.

"Take the time you need," he said, "I'm not going anywhere."

She shot him a look before she headed back to the beach house, not too sure about that.

* * *

The sunset looked beautiful, sending shimmers of the most gorgeous shades of reds, oranges and yellows merging into the purplish blues surrounding them.

But Alexis didn't have any time to enjoy the scenery. She had taken advantage of the time of day to slip over the electrified fence after taking precautions to protect herself and then landing softly on the sprinkler soaked grass on the other side. After that, she had rushed off to the far side of the building which now lurked in shadow and she looked at the great oak tree for the sturdiest branches before beginning her climb. Mercifully they held her lithe build easily enough and she scrambled up the tree to where it brushed the rose trellis and then after taking a deep breath and mentally counting to three, she gingerly stepped onto the creaking framework. She didn't know if it would hold her for long, but she had no choice. The schematics of the mansion had shown that this entrance offered the best chances for success.

She tried not to pay too much attention to the groans of the trellis or the way it vibrated with each movement she made and finally she reached the window which she knew would be partly open after the sun started going down. She tried to force it open without falling smack on the ground 15 feet below her and the trellis wobbled dangerously causing adrenalin to pool in her veins. God, she had so not signed up for this duty but even as she thought that, she knew she had to accomplish her goal.

She had to free the man she loved from the wicked witch that held him captive but she didn't have much time. To him, the witch appeared to be a beautiful woman named Lucy but Alexis knew better. But right now, the witch would be down in her kitchen concocting her magic brew to place Julian even further under her spell. Alexis vowed even as she struggled to get the window further open that this would never happen.

Suddenly, with a jolt, the window opened wide and Alexis slid in the best she could manage and landed with a thud on the floor. She feared at first that the sound had reverberated through the old house and had announced her arrival but nothing had happened.

She looked around the room, her eyes adjusting quickly to the darkness and she saw him lying in the bed still dressed in the tux that he had worn at the impromptu wedding that he had engaged in once Lucy had put him under her spell.

Alexis approached the slumbering man carefully because after all, Lucy could have booby trapped him. He appeared peaceful but she knew his mind remained suspended in some form of animation or limbo and only she could free him.

But like in a similar fairytale she had to kiss him first…not that it was any hardship. She just didn't know how he would react when he woke up and saw her there. But if he did something like complain, she would just leave him with the witch forever after giving him a piece of her mind. So she told herself as she prepared to kiss him, for the second that their lips would brush and the kiss would deepen and break the witch's spell.

And so she moved closer to him but before she could kiss him, the thunder crashed and the lights flashed and the door to the hallway swept open with a clatter and in the doorway was Lucy. Only not the way that Alexis had remembered her when wait a minute here, she had tried to slice her throat with a scalpel.

The scalpel appeared in Lucy's hand again as her hand rose to slash her again…

* * *

Alexis woke up in a damp sweat, damn why her dreams had to end like this, just when things had been getting…interesting…some dream force came between her and Julian. It had to be something in her own psyche that made that happen…perhaps all this excitement. Well, she knew how thanks to this interlude at the beach house but after what he had just dropped on her last night…and then this afternoon. She'd come back to work on the couch and he had joined her, as they both worked hard until deciding to turn in for the night.

She shook her head, tousling her hair as she got out of bed and headed to the shower mostly to clear her thoughts and after that, she picked out a conservative outfit that Spinelli had suggested she wear that made her seem somewhat…demure. She slipped on the dress and matching short heeled boots while getting dressed and then she headed out to the kitchen to make some food before they went to do the live broadcast at Spinelli's impromptu studio.

Julian sat there already and she stifled a chuckle at what he was wearing. He clearly bristled in his three piece business suit but he looked quite impressive.

"I made some omelets, kept it simple and there's some toast…"

She smiled at him.

"Thanks honey…"

She went over to serve herself. His brow arched at her and she smiled at him again.

"We both look the perfect picture of domestic bliss…very prim and proper."

Julian made a face.

"Yeah I noticed…well this plan had better work," he said, "How'd you sleep?"

She shrugged.

"Okay…I must have been really tired from the sun."

He grimaced and she knew he wasn't even going to gloss over it.

"I tossed and turned," he said, "You know I meant what I said last night."

She sat down in a chair next to him with her meal.

"I know you did…but so did I and this is just going to work the way you say you want."

He seemed to understand that and nodded.

"I'm sorry about that but this had been on my mind a long time."

She tilted her head.

"Before or after the feds came to clear the riff raff out of PC?"

He grew silent, fingering his coffee mug.

"That has nothing to do with it."

"So you say but I have a hard time believing it."

"I can't convince you?"

Her brows lifted.

"I may be easy to fool once Julian but not twice."

Julian sighed.

"That wasn't my intention but I think you know that."

She put her hand up.

"Don't blame me for my decision not to get excited at your professed interest."

He rubbed the bridge of his nose.

"I don't…I know I have to prove myself and I'm not worried about that at all."

Alexis looked at her watch.

"Well it and your overconfidence might have to wait," she said, "We've got 30 minutes to get to Spinelli's for the broadcast and if I press the Ferrari to the max, we might just make it."

He threw her a dubious look.

"Alexis it's my turn to drive…"

She shook her head.

"Julian, you turn corners way too fast. We've got to get going…if we're going to get there."

They both headed out of the house to the car to head off to appear via satellite on the morning talk show, trying not to think what was at stake.


	14. Chapter 14

Alexis froze when she saw the camera aiming at her as she and Julian sat in a cramped shed that doubled as some sort of webcast studio. Who would have ever guessed that such technology existed? She surfed the web as much as anyone but she stuck mostly to researching prospective bone marrow donors and okay, every once in a while she checked out the dating sites because with her frenetic schedule, it just was difficult to meet men who weren't insane or on their way to prison.

And maybe if she had used those sites, she never would have wound up with Shawn in the first place. But anyway, she felt so self-conscious in front of the camera right now, it definitely didn't look like a friend.

Julian looked even more ill at ease than she did and he'd been involved in the media business. Still he'd been living a life as someone else a couple of decades before it all blew up along with a few boats in the harbor of PC. Maybe he'd kept a lower profile until he was comfortable with his new identity.

Spinelli just had spent the past hour or so setting them up with lapel mics and had a woman named Chloe who looked like she had dropped out of the Sixties powder their faces up with makeup so their features wouldn't "disappear" in the lighting, she explained. Joey had actually dropped by and they had been surprised to see how different he looked from his days as a video game programmer who'd been on the news a lot lately.

Joey had woven his new found celebrity at stopping the killer computer into a contract with the State Department and on the side, a gig producing a morning talk show in L.A. After catching up on each other's lives, he had barked orders to Spinelli who took them willingly and at Chloe who just smiled at him indulgently.

So now Julian and Alexis sat in front of the camera with spotlights on them feeling very much under the gun so to speak.

Joey put up his hand with all five fingers to do the countdown to air time.

"Five…four…three…two…"

Everyone listened to some female talking head miles away in L.A. give the intro to how the viewing audience would be listening to an exclusive statement from the runaway bride and the man she was hiding out with.

"Kidnapper or partner in crime, you decide…."

Julian and Alexis just looked at each other.

"Okay, now this is where you come in," Joey instructed.

"And in the remote undisclosed location, our two guests are taking some time off from their adventure or…crime if you aren't sure what to call it to provide some insight into exactly what happened at the wedding that wasn't…okay so Julian Jerome… Alexis Davis…are you both there?"

They answered him in the affirmative, not sure what they had just gotten themselves into but it was too late to back out now.

"So what do you think of this runaway bride business, Ms Davis?"

Alexis looked at the camera like a deer caught in headlights.

"What….?"

"Why did you jilt your fiancé at the altar…at the very last possible moment? I mean this appears to have been a pattern with you in the earlier days…"

Meaning Ned Ashton. That dear sweet man who she'd been about to marry before getting cold feet and just taking off.

Something inside Alexis her courtroom persona perhaps took control then.

"It wasn't the last possible minute…It was several hours before and I was preparing to put on my wedding dress…and I found these photos. Well let's just say I had second thoughts about marrying him then."

The talking head they couldn't see appeared to digest that news.

"What photos? Who were they of, were they of other women?"

Alexis just sat there as the talking head jabbered on.

"Were they of his mistresses; was he in them in compromising positions with them?"

She paused, wondering how to put what she had to say in words that dealt with a somewhat delicate topic of what Shawn did for a living.

"They were pictures of men…."

A pin dropping silence greeted her then from some point in L.A.

"Men that are now either missing or dead," Alexis said slowly, "It didn't make any sense at first but it did give me second thoughts about my wedding."

The talking head took a minute to recover from her shock.

"Dead men...What are you trying to tell the viewing audience?"

Alexis bit the bullet.

"My fiancé…Shawn is a hired hit man for Sonny Corinthos and maybe other businessmen as well."

"You mean mafiasosos don't you?"

"Well we don't call them that. We call them businessmen and Shawn was very good at his business."

The silence that met that revelation lasted longer and the connection between the two studios had been broken. But then the talking head apparently recovered to ask more questions.

"Are you serious?"

"I've never been more so," Alexis said, "When Julian…he showed up he told me just as much but I already had seen enough."

"This is just so shocking…we're going to have to get a response from our other two guests on this allegation."

Julian frowned.

"Other two guests…?"

"Shawn Butler and his friend Carly Jax who are sitting her in our studio right now, "was the cheerful answer from the talking head.

Alexis tried to keep herself composed while on the air but her hand went to her chest.

"Oh…"

"And now viewing audience we'll go to our other guests in our local studio for their responses to these allegations."

Alexis and Julian braced themselves.

"Lies…all lies…how can someone like that (beep) make up such (beeping) lies about my friend and what he does for a living? Shawn's a well-respected businessman not a remorseless killer…to say otherwise is just (beeping) ridiculous and it's slanderous but what can you expect from a (beeping) (beep)…(beep)…"

That sounded an awful lot like Carly, Alexis guessed and she sounded rather irate.

"And what about you Shawn," the talking head said, moving on.

"I believe it's like I told you earlier, my fiancée is very overwrought and emotionally disturbed by the lies that this kidnapper, this ruthless mobster capo has fed to her in an attempt to brainwash her and turn her against me…she knows not what she says…"

"Okay…that's pretty straight to the point," the talking head said, "Would you like to comment to that Mr. Jerome?"

Julian nodded.

"Yes I would…these aren't just allegations about the real Shawn, there's photographs in our possession that prove that they are true."

Alexis looked at Julian suddenly and arched a brow at him, and then she realized what he was doing.

"Yes…he's telling the truth…there are several photos which are in a very safe place."

The talking head digested that.

"Okay…could we get copies of them?"

Julian nodded.

"Of course, when the time is right," he said, "We'll send you instructions on how to receive them," he said, "You will find that everything that is said about Shawn being a professional assassin is true and so will everyone else."

Julian and Alexis thought they heard gasps from the other studio back in L.A.

"This interview is over," Julian said, and Spinelli nodded, cutting off the connection.

Spinelli smiled broadly at the two of them.

"Boy, you two haven't changed a bit," he said, "You do know that you've just gotten a very dangerous man angry with you."

Julian knew that but it had been a calculated risk and he knew he could keep the two of them safe. Alexis knew that too but of course she had worried more about him. Yeah he might be a jackass for what he did but he was still family…to her daughter and grandson.

"Julian…I don't want anything to happen to you."

He stroked her hair off her face.

"Nothing's going to happen…We might not have the goods on Shawn and his crimes yet but we will…Coleman can help us with information we got from the five families."

She nodded and then impulsively, she leaned towards him and kissed him softly on the mouth. Not longer than a couple of seconds but it didn't take even that long for the tingling sensation to fill either one of them.

Joey just chuckled, folding his arms at him.

"So when did this development take place?"

* * *

Julian and Alexis drove back in the car to the beach house and she let him drive this time content to gaze at the scenery as it flew on by. They always checked to make sure they weren't being tailed by Shawn's men or anyone else for that matter. She looked over at him as he appeared to be lost in thought while looking out onto the road.

"I thought that went well didn't you," she said, "even Joey bought it."

He smiled.

"You take sealing it with a kiss to a whole new level not that I'm complaining."

She gave him a sharp look.

"Well we were playing a role."

He kept it tongue and cheek.

"Of course."

They parked the Ferrari and headed into the house to change to head on down to the beach. She put on another suit that she had picked up at the boutique and a wrap over it then her towel, before heading into the kitchen to get some snacks to take with her.  
It hadn't taken Julian long to decide to do the same thing.

"I'm thinking of taking a swim today," he said, "I might be getting out of shape."

She suppressed a chuckle at that while looking at his gorgeous physique.

"I don't think you'll ever have that problem," she said, "but it's a nice day for it."

"What about you," he said, "Would you like to join me?"

She appeared to think about it.

"No, I might go on a light jog," she said, "and then I'm kicking back with a good book."

He sighed as he grabbed them both some sodas from the frig.

"We're going to have to be really careful now," he said, "Shawn's got no reason to sue for slander but every reason to come after us."

She nodded.

"I think the trail we left will hold up for a while," she said, "but we're going to have to make some definite plans of what to do next."

"I put in a call to Coleman to look some stuff up for us," Julian said, "I think we'll hear from him later this afternoon."

"Okay that sounds like a plan," she said, grabbing her things and they left to go down to the beach.

Julian did what he said he would do and went into the ocean to take a swim. She knew at this time of year it was about as warm as it would ever get but still quite cool but Julian moved through the waves with sure, swift strokes while she left their towels to go off on a run. Her muscles tightened a bit at first because it had been a while but once she started breaking out into a light sweat, she felt better. She ran on the densely packed sand with dunes blocking her view of some of the other houses that lined their same street. She could easily see why people lived here, or retreated to these homes to escape busier lives in the city. Doing that, made so much sense and she thought that maybe when they returned to PC…she would seriously consider doing the same.

So much awaited her back there including figuring out what to do about Julian, because she knew what he wanted but it just all appeared so complicated. She didn't know if she trusted him certainly with her feelings…or if she trusted herself for that matter.

She focused on the path through the sand dunes ahead not aware that someone had followed her.


	15. Chapter 15

Julian walked out of the ocean and back onto shore looking around him before going to retrieve his towel to dry off. He couldn't see Alexis anywhere and figured she must have gone for a walk or a run. The swim had completely invigorated him and he felt more energized after hard exercise than fatigued, ready to tackle something more serious. Like going after Shawn and his murderous lifestyle, had to be a main priority.

But at least Alexis had not been tangled up anymore with that lowlife. If they had gone through with the wedding…Julian didn't even want to think about it. He didn't want that for the woman that had at first fascinated and then captivated him…because he had to admit that part of the driving force behind his decision to go and bust up her nuptials had been because even if Shawn had been the patron saint of goodness, Julian didn't want Alexis to marry him.

Oh he know some might say certainly Alexis that he had no right to tell her who she could and couldn't marry but these feelings…when had life gotten so complicated? He just didn't think that way when it came to what he wanted. He made the decision to go out and get it no matter what usually after planning a strategy. His previous plan to dominate the Mafioso scene at PC had stood in his way.

He looked at his watch, nothing was on the schedule but maybe they could go out to dinner or order inside tonight. But the sunlight beckoned so Julian decided to relax some more on the beach knowing Alexis would be returning soon.

Alexis ran down the beach, noticing the calmness of the ocean next to her and the quietness around her. She hadn't really appreciated the peacefulness of her enforced sabbatical until several days had passed. It proved a great environment for thinking and reevaluating her life…which was necessary given that she had nearly married a hit man believing he had changed. Even if she had any suspicions about Shawn, would it have been enough to stop her if Julian hadn't shown up? And her feelings about him, they were all tangled up, because she knew that part of the reason she had gravitated to Shawn in the first place had to do with her feelings about the man who had just shown up.

Then like that everything had changed on her wedding day.

Seriously, she hadn't even told Shawn she would be leaving; she had just run off in a hail of gunfire, how normal was that?

She didn't need a man, she needed a good therapist.

Running helped smooth out her rough edges in her thinking of why she had been drawn to loser men with homicidal tendencies so much later because who could forget Jerry Jax? Seriously the last good guy she had been with had been Ned and when it'd been time to hitch herself to him legally, she'd fled for the hills. She'd hurt him deeply when she did that without meaning too and it'd taken a long time for Ned to heal.

She stopped for a moment to grab her breath, wiping her forehead. What good could come out of overanalyzing her relationships with men, when she had to focus on how to extricate herself from one professional killer and his borderline messed up crew who had always worried Alexis more than a little bit.

Deciding to head back, she turned around and then she saw her…was that Ivory the neighbor and what was she doing all the way down here? Ivory looked up and smiled at her and Alexis started jogging, reaching her.

"It's a beautiful day," Ivory said, "Great for some exercise but you're all alone."

Alexis wiped her hair out of her face.

"I thought I'd get away from him for a while and let him do some guy things while I enjoyed some time alone."

Ivory nodded knowingly.

"That's good for any relationship," she said, "You've been together long?"

Alexis thought quickly, make it simple, she decided.

"Well it certainly seems that way sometimes but no, this is a new development for both of us."

Ivory smiled.

"He's certainly a looker…not that I'm looking…"

"He wants to marry but we really hadn't known each other long enough," Alexis said, "Besides I don't believe that something like that should be rushed into…"

Since when, Alexis thought feeling like kicking herself but she smiled instead.

"Not that he's not great but we've got to work a few of our idiosyncrasies out first."

Ivory nodded again.

"I can see why that might be important," she said, "so where do you hail from anyway?"

Alexis tried to act all casual.

"Oh NYC…then elsewhere…originally but we might be thinking about relocating…I'd love to live near the beach fulltime."

"It's a great place...Though in the winter the weather can be quite harsh, the ocean washes parts of the coastline away and we get landslides sometimes."

When compared to the less than natural disasters of her own life, Alexis thought she could handle the more natural kind.

"So what about you Ivory…what drew you here," she asked.

Ivory beamed.

"Oh my family grew up on a beach near Santa Barbara and I always remember fondly the times we spent paddling in the ocean and collecting sea shells…I wanted to do that as a grownup too."

"I can understand that."

"There's plenty of real estate left," Ivory said, "and it doesn't cost as much money as you might think."

Alexis didn't want to tell Ivory that money was really no object for her or Julian so she just nodded, thinking the less she said about the history of her…relationship to him the better.

"I…we might look into it."

Ivory looked at her watch.

"Well I'd better get going," she said, "I have some ceramics to prepare for the kiln…I do that on the side…through an online store."

"That sounds great…"

Ivory nodded.

"I've got some orders even though I've only been at it a few months."

* * *

She waved goodbye and headed down the beach while Alexis started jogging again back to the beachfront in front of the house. As she approached, she saw Julian lying on the towel, but couldn't tell whether he was asleep or just relaxing after his arduous swim. He sure looked fine, his physique definitely accentuated by his swimsuit. She had never told him this because it'd just get to his head and anyway, he'd had slipped between the sheets of a couple of PC's women who had attracted more than their share of emotionally complicated if dynamic men. Alexis had thought Julian dynamic from the start even when he'd been Derek the publishing magnate and had only learned to notice and appreciate some of the layers that made him up later on. Not that it had yielded good results for her since it'd turned out that he'd been someone entirely different than she imagined not to mention someone who turned out not to be a stranger.

He'd of course figured that out quite a while before she did and hadn't shared that information with her. Just remembering that, made her feel so damn foolish and colored every interaction she'd had with him. Maybe he'd enjoyed playing her that way, maybe it gave him power and the thrill of welding it. It certainly gave him an edge in any game he played.

She approached the towel next to him and sat down, reaching for her water bottle to take a nice long sip. The sun had been quite warm and a hint of humidity from the ocean dampened the air. Julian hoisted himself up on his elbows to look at her.

"Good run?"

She nodded.

"How was your swim?"

He smiled.

"Very energizing…how would you like to go out to dinner tonight or would you like to order in?"

She considered her options.

"Dinner?"

"Yeah it's what people normally do in the evenings sometimes as a prelude to other thing."

Damn the look in his eyes, she'd grown to recognize it. He was trying to get under her skin again. She didn't mind as much as she should.

"I'd like to order in…actually…I think we've been out enough lately."

He agreed.

"Less privacy in a restaurant."

She countered.

"More risk of being seen not a desirable outcome since we're supposedly lying low."

He just chuckled.

She reached for some sunscreen and put it on her skin. Julian watched, because she might be irritated with him right now but she sure could fill out a suit very nicely. She shot him a look catching him at it.

"What are you looking at?"

"You…"

"I can see that…but it's not as if we haven't seen each other like this already. I mean especially with you being so bashful and all about your state of undress."

"My what?"

"You know what I mean…"

He did but he did enjoy teasing her mostly to see some pink on her face and because he knew that it made her lower her guard around him.

"I know but this is different…"

Yeah it was, she realized because they really had been conducting themselves a bit differently since ditching the wedding in a hail of gunfire. She still remembered when they had kissed but she really shouldn't be thinking about that because everything was just so difficult now, too complicated for those types of feelings to spill over when everything was such a mess. She hadn't forgiven him after all.

"I know…and it's just not a good time for that kind of different right now. It might never be a good time."

Julian sat up and stroked the hair off of her shoulders and she enjoyed it too much to say anything.

"It's all going to work out," he said, "The interview went great this morning and Roy's working hard on his end to help resolve all this. The rest of it will fall into line."

She sighed.

"It shouldn't be something that had to be resolved," she said, "I really thought I knew what I was doing…but I think I was just trying to avoid reality and that's you…and the fact that it's hard to have feelings for you when you couldn't even be honest about who you were. I mean you withheld some very important information."

He moved on to caressing her back, and that felt even better. She really should say something but she just had been through this really stressful week and what he did relaxed her so she didn't feel so badly about it. She almost could believe what he had said, that it would all work out in the end.

"I know that I did but as far as excuses go, you'd better come up with a better one."

What he said made sense but she didn't know if she could do that with him…she felt so nervous about what it would mean…especially if it didn't work out. Could she walk away from him if that's what she had to do?

"It doesn't let you off the hook. I don't know if I can ever do that."

"That's fine…I'm in no rush."

She chuckled at that.

"You might be in for a very long wait and you don't seem to have much patience from what I've seen so far."

His hands stopped stroking her skin but remained on her.

"Then you don't know me very well but that's about to change."


	16. Chapter 16

They stood a couple feet apart on the corridor of what looked like a galactic space ship with their blasters ready to fire at the enemy aliens. She had snuck on the ship to free him from the powerful queen of the aliens but after springing him from his cell, they had ran into some armed guards and had to fire at them with their blasters to get away. But the space ship had suddenly turned confusing and they couldn't tell one endless corridor from the next, they had kept running and running almost as if they had been on a treadmill. But she had an inspired thought and had grabbed his hand and had pulled him into a recess that looked like a weapon storage unit before some alien guards could see them.

"One wrong move and we might wind up being surrounded," Julian warned, as he looked both ways while she covered him with her weapon.

Alexis thought he might be right but she didn't travel across the vast galaxy in search for him, fighting a half dozen species of alien on about a dozen planets not to mention the evil forces that sought to enslave everyone including them. Julian had once been a general in the rebellion forces but he had fallen prey to temptation to make some extra cash on the side and had smuggled the wrong set of aliens who had betrayed them to their leader. So after she got the emergency distress beacon, she had to charter a spacecraft, get it blown up by enemy fire and then build her own replacement to make it this far.

But it had been worth it because she had harbored special feelings for this particular traitorous general not that she could ever help herself when he was within her vicinity. Certainly not given that she had sacrificed everything else she had held dear to her to come rescue him. But now that they stood side by side hopefully fighting on the same side to get off the alien ship, she wondered about him. Did he feel the same way about her as she did about him or was it all one-sided? She guessed she might be about to find out and she hoped she hadn't cast her loyalties the wrong way once again.

But at that moment, the footsteps in the distance grew even louder which meant the enemy was getting even closer. Julian turned to her and suddenly, he grabbed her around her waist pulling her closer to him and then he kissed her passionately, catching her completely off guard. And even as the alien forces came closer, she surrendered to her own feelings.

Alexis woke up suddenly thinking wait a minute here. That dream just appeared so illogical. Why on earth would she risk the safety of herself and someone else just for a kiss? No matter how steamy or scintillating, she always put the mission first. Certainly when working with a client in the legal arena on one of contract negotiations inside the conference room. She sighed, looking around her in the darkness. Julian had fallen asleep on the couch after they had dined on pizza delivered to their door. All that swimming must have just worn him out, so she had headed off to bed, after tucking a comforter around his sleeping form, trying hard not to look at him too closely. Because she had been entertaining some thoughts lately and she just had to get this mess cleared up in her life first before she could do anything else.

Yes, Shawn had been a creep, but she had to resolve that relationship and put it in its proper perspective before she could move forward with her life. Before she could divorce that part of her life and focus on what would be in store for her next, something hopefully a more positive, maybe a new job or even relocating outside of PC. She felt she was ready for tremendous change in her life, to head out in new directions after this all ended. But would that involve Julian, because the chemistry between them had always been there, both exhilarating and a little bit scary.

No, she couldn't do that. Not after being played the fool. But sometimes she couldn't help herself

Like going sky diving which she had done several times. Jumping out of a plane, and having faith in her ability to handle her chute safely and a chance to see the earth from someplace up high. Suspended with the rush of air next to her and free floating until the hard landing, which she still hadn't mastered, but which left her with a feeling…like well, it was pretty obvious. Then she would look at that boyfriend who usually landed on his feet given his greater experience and his brow would arch at her, asking was it good for you too?

But this was much different from sky diving, this was dangerous in a whole different way. In a way much different than being engaged to a professional hit man or even running around with a sociopathic terrorist. She got up out of bed, to see that the sun had just started to rise and send shafts of golden light into the beach house. She went past the living room where Julian still slept to the kitchen to start up some coffee and some breakfast for the two of them. Spinelli hadn't called them about what the response had been to their interviews but she turned on the TV in the breakfast nook to catch up on the day's events.

"This is Kendra Wilkes and I'm here to report on the latest on the lovers on the lam, no sightings yet of them…but it's only a matter of time."

Then she saw some photos of a man and woman pop up on the screen and her eyes widened. They were of her and Julian and as for her, they had posted a photo from an old mug shot. She couldn't quite remember which one because they weren't in short supply.

"The two lovers apparently planned the bust up at the wedding between her and Shawn that business entrepreneur and are holed up in some love nest between here and New York City.

Ken, the male anchor with the buzz cut just nodded on cue.

"She's the runaway bride and originally it appeared to be a kidnapping which turned into some Stockholm Syndrome kind of deal but apparently it was a ruse the two of them planned together so she could get out of her wedding to the noteworthy businessman and former manager of Kelly's Diner in Port Charles."

Kendra sighed.

"What was that girl thinking,. How could anyone not want to marry that hunk of burning love Shawn, and what about the couple's shocking accusations that he's a hired killer?"

"Well no legal action has even been threatened from Team Shawn so maybe he's willing to forgive her and take her back once she comes back down to earth."

Alexis just watched these two talking heads discuss her life in amazement. Really, they had no clue what they were even talking about, if they thought she and Julian…they were…oh my god, she sighed.

She heard Julian enter the kitchen.

"Good morning…"

She grimaced.

"I'm not so sure about that…look."

He looked up at the television in time to catch a photo of his taken from his own appearance at the Medallion Mixer.

"I can see the media's been very busy."

"I'm sorry…"

"What do you have to be sorry about," he asked, "It's obviously a slow news week for the press if we're the number one story on the air right now."

She took the eggs she had been mixing to the stove to pour onto the frying pan.

"This whole lovers on the lam thing is just so far away from the truth," she said, "and they're painting Shawn as the wronged fiancé."

"The truth about him will emerge soon enough," Julian said, "I'm sure the feds are getting ready to indict him and the whole bunch pretty soon."

She sighed.

"I sure hope so…"

He massaged her shoulders from behind and she relaxed against him. How could she not, the man knew what to do with his fingers

"Then we can go back to PC. and figuring out how to navigate through that chaotic mess."

She turned around to face him, not sure of what he was saying.

"You mean back to figuring out how to get your territory back," she said, "and how to be a mobster to the newly revised PC under the feds."

"What about you?"

She shrugged.

"Like I said, I'll see my family, make sure there's no lurking Cassadines hanging around to take full advantage of the situation and then plan what to do next."

Then they both looked back at the television to see Shawn sitting up with Kendra and Ken, dressed in a pinstriped suit. Kendra smiled at him brightly.

"News is you've just landed a contract to sponsor a men's cologne."

Julian and Alexis just looked at each other.

"Yes, that's true," he said, "There's no name for the product yet but I've signed the contract."

"I'm sure it will be quite successful," Kendra said, "You've really attracted a following what with your heart being smashed by the runaway bride and her lover."

Shawn sighed, a little bit too dramatically, Alexis thought.

"Well I really loved her but she clearly was too confused herself to really love anyone," he said, "I don't think she's really with this man of her own free will…I think she's operating under a diminished capacity and is being brainwashed by him."

Kendra nodded, serious now.

"So would you take her back if she returned to you, begging for forgiveness?"

Shawn smiled.

"I might consider it…but I would make sure that she agreed to seek professional help."

Alexis just rolled her eyes at the television.

"I don't need any such help," she said, "He needs to be inside a jail cell."

"He'll be soon," Julian said, "On multiple counts of murder and then he'll probably lose that cologne endorsement contract."

She scooped the scrambled eggs out of the frying pan onto a couple plates and he got some silverware.

"I can't understand why he's getting so much of the positive coverage," she said, "I mean if they could only report the truth about him."

Julian went for some coffee.

"There's no accounting for the media's tastes," he said, "except that they don't appear interested in the whole story."

"It's not finished being written yet."

Alexis knew this and that the sentiment would change…well maybe when the media started showing images of Shawn in handcuffs and leg irons being escorted from jail to his arraignment but then again, maybe not. Maybe that could add to his celebrity and his apparent cult following.

* * *

They both dined on their eggs and some toast having had enough of the television. Alexis had decided that she might drive to do some shopping in the village while Julian hit the computer to find out more information that might bring down Shawn a bit faster. Coleman had left a message that he would call him later after hearing from some of his own sources.

Alexis showered and dressed casually in denim shorts and a light jacket to head on to buy some more clothing. She had needed to get away from Julian so she could do some thinking about her future…before she could entertain thoughts about him. She shook her head at the media's depiction of them as being wayward lovers when nothing could be further from the truth. But then again, she knew there were feelings she harbored towards him that she had to face. Especially if it had been true that she had turned to Shawn in such a big way to escape them.

The drive proved scenic and she stopped at a designer boutique. For being a small town, the main thoroughfare boasted some pretty impressive shops. She stopped first at the one where some impressive looking dresses had been displayed in the window and she liked the royal blue strapless in the center. Oh yeah, she had to go try that on, so she went inside, not knowing that someone outside had been on her trail…


	17. Chapter 17

Alexis looked inside the displays in the stores around her. Mannequins adorned in styles which were in some cases, elegant and in others, outrageously gaudy. She admired them and decided to go inside to take a much closer look. Julian had work that he had to do and he didn't like shopping for clothes all that much but she did on occasion. And the blue strapless dress just called to her, like a siren.

She went inside to try it on…she didn't know where she would wear it maybe some party when she and Julian returned back to their lives in PC and they went their separate ways. If she had gone through with her wedding…she kept thinking about that even when she didn't want…it hadn't been the first time she had hooked up with a killer unfortunately but it had been Julian of all people that had to set her straight. That bothered her because what kind of man was he, but one who had killed others to push for territory as PC's latest mobster.

It had looked like for a while that he might be keeping himself busy with the likes of Carly and Olivia and she'd been apprehensive about that in ways where she hadn't been aware of how deep her feelings had run and where they had really come from. She didn't know why it mattered to her and she kept it to herself. It only seemed natural that men gravitated to Carly she'd grown used to that. Dianne and she used to joke about it during their nights at Coleman's bar or the Floating Rib when they'd been friends.

She might have been relieved by the fact that neither of Sonny's main molls had kept him captivated for long but it hadn't been because she had wanted Julian for herself. No, she didn't want him at all. She didn't want to be associated with the likes of Julian Jerome. It wasn't him being a mobster like everyone around her probably believed, it was because she just had served as a means to an end to him giving him info on his enemy without realizing it. He'd played her for a fool right?

More than once…okay maybe she'd gotten to do it back in return when she kept her secret away from him for a little while. But nothing had changed between them and nothing would as long as they were hiding out from most of the world right now.

Of course not. They were sharing close quarters now but she'd keep her distance from him.

Okay maybe she'd kissed him a couple of times and maybe it'd been enjoyable but she wasn't into repeating her mistakes no matter how much he tempted her. What he'd done to her had hurt her to the core and she remembered that whenever she was around him.

Then again, he'd used her to get at Sonny and she'd found out just before it'd been too late and that not only had he been Julian Jerome, he'd been _that_ Julian too. God, what a revelation that had been and Sam had struggled with it but took it much better than she did.

Her mind volleyed back and forth on the subject of Julian and it was not nearly as fun as the verbal volleys the two of them had exchanged since they met up again this time around.

She still struggled because there was so much she'd wanted to say to him but why would anything she had to say interest a hardened mobster more interested in being the Mafioso of PC than reconnecting with his baby mama and her family?

"Excuse me, may I help you with something miss…?"

She looked up to see a young woman with three different colors in her hair and a few spangled bracelets on her arms looking at her.

"Oh…I'm looking but that blue dress…it looks nice…"

The woman smiled.

"Would you like to try it on?"

"May I?"

The woman nodded and pointed the way to the dressing room.

"Just call me if you need any assistance."

Alexis took the lovely little dress and yeah, it would just about reach down to her knees meaning that it was designed to show off a little leg and the top part, to accentuate some cleavage. She could wear this to a informal party, between close friends, one preferably with great looking men present rather than a formal awards dinner or fundraiser. She stripped off her casual clothes and then slipped the dress on over her head and zipped it in the back. Oh wow, she thought when she posed in front of the mirror. She looked damn fine in it…it hugged her hips and tapered to accentuate her lean muscled legs.

Definitely add it to her list…even if she couldn't wear it for a while…she might throw in some more casual summer dresses to wear while they were hiding out …and maybe a couple of suits safe enough to wear in church for any press conferences where she didn't want to look too. Maybe she'd wear it out on a date if she ever felt like mingling as a single woman again. This time she'd definitely hit a dating service, have her daughter and Spinelli run background checks and then have him vetted by Mac before she agreed to go on a date with him.

It just didn't seem worth it to throw caution in the wind with the next bad boy already waiting out there to mess with her head and then her life. Especially since her most recent member of that club had made it clear that he still had some kind of interest in her. She couldn't think what because there wasn't really anything she could do to help him beat Sonny anymore that the feds had gone after his entire operation.

"Oh that looks lovely on you," the woman said approvingly when Alexis posed in front of the mirror outside the dressing room.

"I like it…I might need to buy some shoes to do it justice…"

"You're a very attractive woman…and we do have some heels in the back of the store…"

Alexis smiled as she followed the woman to check them out.

* * *

Julian looked at the computer after getting off the phone with Coleman who had given them an update on what was going on with Shawn and the feds. They didn't seem to want to do anything with him and she wondered if that meant they were gathering more information or interested in pressuring him with what they had to get him to give states evidence in court. He'd just filet the guy…not just for killing people but for what he had done to Alexis If he hadn't stopped the wedding…but then again she had enough sense to have broken it off…but then again he remembered the hail of gunfire that had followed their getaway.

She had gone off to do some shopping for some clothes and so he had called Coleman after returning a terse call from Sam about why Shawn was on talk shows saying that Alexis had been brainwashed by Julian. The latest propaganda being circulated from the professional hit man no doubt.

Other than having to hide out, the time spent at the beach house with Alexis had been pretty great…they hadn't spent enough time together in quite a while and he had missed her…more than he would ever tell her…because of what had happened between them because he hadn't made the right decisions when it came to her. He'd wanted to ask her so many questions when she'd realized that he was the man who'd sired her eldest daughter in the back seat of a car years ago.

He'd wanted to ask her what it'd been like to be pregnant with their daughter but knew that'd tap into a lot of painful memories for her. He saw them etched on her face when she'd confronted him with the truth even while she tried to hide them.

What it'd been like to have to face her family and by then he'd known she was a Cassadine and that there'd be heavy penalties for an illegitimate daughter to herself produce another child like her.

She'd told him that her memories of what happened the night they were together had been compromised for years…though it'd taken her most of that time to remember why she'd blocked the out so that only hypnosis could find some of them. If she could only forget who the man was who fathered her baby, then her uncle and his brothers could never find him. They'd kill him for sure if they did and nothing he said to her about being a member of the formidable Jerome family of mobsters could convince her otherwise.

"You don't know my family," she had told him, "They wouldn't stop at nothing until they tracked you down and wiped the family lineage clean of you. You wouldn't stand a chance against them."

Not the likes of Mikkos and Tony and Victor who had been intent in trying to get every detail out of her about the unborn child that would bastardize their royal lineage even further. Mikkos ensured that she would remain alive and not wind up like other family traitors. Stefan offered her some protection.

Julian hadn't thought anyone could pose a threat to the Jeromes especially in their bad ass years but something in her eyes told him she wasn't kidding. The Cassadines were the ultimate bad boys putting everyone else to shame.

So she'd taken steps as a young girl to protect him that he never had a clue about…well he had his own memories of what had happened and what he did that he'd never spilled.

When he had broken into Shawn's estate and found her in his suite, he had been taken aback by her beauty and by the sense that she viewed him with some degree with wariness when the man who would be her groom was the one to worry about not him.

Had they drifted that far apart from one another…crossed each other that much but if they had, they had made up ground in the past week they had spent together.

Though he knew she'd be loath to admit it. He had to find some way to get her to change her mind on that.

Coleman had left him a message on his phone when he checked that the feds had assigned a deputy AG to monitor the happenings in PC and that they might be preparing to lower the boom. It was best he stay away. Dante had been taken in for another round of questions and Max…well it wasn't looking good for him because they'd put the screws into his brother Milo and the "magic man" had sung like a bird.

Anna had wrung her hands at the takeover of her police department and Felicia had stood by patting her on the shoulder as Duke was searching for an attorney who was not under or facing indictment and disbarment in PC. Dianne had taken off on vacation from the burgeoning train wreck to get away for a while.

Julian knew he had to make some decisions. He just didn't know what they were going to be yet.

* * *

Alexis hadn't known that she was being followed while in the store purchasing her clothes and so she continued down to the street to the DVD store to pick up some movies for the two of them to watch. Something besides action movies and westerns…maybe a romance or two….or a comedy…

No stay away from romance definitely.

She didn't know what kind of movies Julian liked. Was he into mobster type movies or something far different from his own life? She'd never known that much about him even though they had…no need to think about that.

But behind her the person tailing her got on the phone to make a call.


	18. Chapter 18

Alexis made it back to the bungalow where Julian waited for her, still on the computer. He looked as if he'd been at it all afternoon and still hadn't gotten anywhere.

"Hey, I need you for a few minutes…"

Something in her voice grabbed his attention away from his research.

"What…you have something to show me?"

She nodded and he followed her back to her purchases, pulling out the blue dress first. His eyes lit up as she hoped they would.

"It's lovely…I imagine it would look more so on you."

"I just saw it in the window of this boutique in the village and it called out to me."

He imagined how it would mold to her curves, the ones he had sometimes thought about holding onto why he…never mind…those were the kind of thoughts that if he said anything about, she'd check him quickly.

"When you planning on wearing it," he asked, idly.

She shrugged, putting it back down.

"I don't know…a party when we get back to PC when this whole situation becomes just another closed case."

He smiled.

"I'd like to throw that party…at the suite…or the beach house."

She considered that, running her hand through her hair, then she looked up at him.

"Maybe a private party…just the two of us…?"

He arched a brow up at her in question, wondering what she was getting at and hoping…

"Just so we can kind of decompress from all this excitement…," she said, walking away from him.

"What else did you buy," he said, "I see you have a couple more bags."

She tossed him a small bag which he deftly caught.

"I got you some action movies on DVDs and some romantic comedies but those are more for me."

He perused him and she had picked her titles well.

"Okay what else…"

She bit her lip.

"I'd rather not tell you…"

He looked at her surprised.

"Why…is it something personal?"

She sighed, returning to sit on the couch.

"Let's just say some other clothing…items called out to me when I was shopping. They have a very nice lingerie boutique."

He sucked in his breath as all kinds of images swirled in front of him right now all of them starring the woman in front of him.

"Oh…so that's what is in the last bag? Care to share them?"

She just tilted her face, shooting him a look of reproach.

"Julian, they're for me okay…just because I buy lingerie doesn't mean it's for a guy…of course I might want a guy to see it someday."

"Someday…"

She nodded.

"Yeah at some point when I decide to start my new life…I'm going into the dating market more armed this time…"

He shot her a look.

"Armed?"

She chuckled.

"Oh not your kind of 'armed' of course. But you know what I mean. I mean you're a man who's been around the block…including in PC and after our little talk…"

"Talk?"

"Yeah the one where I said I wanted more fun with my life and not so much seriousness."

He remembered that conversation.

"I needed a new wardrobe for…playing pool at Coleman's just in case…well I never lose so nothing to worry about there. You play pool?"

"Sometimes…"

"It'd be a really great way to unwind after conducting mob…business."

"I imagine…"

"Do you? Are you good at it? Cause if you're not, well if memory serves me, brevity is not a bad thing for you when it comes to wardrobe."

He just stared at her his jaw about to drop but she'd already moved on.

"I'm hungry what about you?"

"Ah…that's good I guess," he said, clearing his throat, "I guess I could get us something to eat."

"How about some sandwiches," she said, "I think I want to try out that swing in the back. It's a great view."

She walked out and he just watched her go, wondering if he'd really ever be able to figure her out.

* * *

They moved into the kitchen to get out some cold cuts to whip up some sandwiches and she found some ice cold beers in the frig. They took their bounty outside in the heat, towards the swing which mercifully stood in the shady side of the back porch. They sat on it together and it creaked beneath their weight.

He bit into his sandwich, while she cracked open her beer and took a long sip. They ate together in silence, both rummaging through their own thoughts, not willing to test them on each other.

She brushed against his shoulder as she often did when they sat together, but neither moved away.

"I really don't know why I did it …"

There she had said it in the middle of lunch.

"Did what?"

"Got engaged to a professional hit man. I mean I thought he'd changed of course. I should have learned by now that people of that stripe never do "

He sighed, sipping his own beer, reveling as it slid down his throat. He loved afternoons like this one spent with the scent of ocean in the air and hot enough so that an icy beer really hit the spot.

Along with just the right company, the best company.

"Alexis you had no way of knowing that he had a secret life."

She shuddered, but then chuckled.

"You'd think I'd learn after associating with a man who did the same, or are you Derek Wells today Julian Jerome?"

He deserved that and didn't say anything to challenge her.

"Still, I am glad you found out and came to warn me before I could do something really stupid."

"You were about to walk away from him," Julian said, "I just wanted to be there in case he tried something."

"Which he did…he almost killed us."

Julian sipped his beer again.

"He didn't succeed."

"If he did…well I really have to start evaluating the men I gravitate to or I need more time n on Kevin's couch."

His brows knit.

"Kevin…oh the shrink."

"Yeah the shrink. He's really helpful…especially during the hypnosis to remember your name."

He sighed.

"We all make errors in judgment I know I've done that and a couple times they almost cost but you just learn from them and avoid them next time."

"There…that sounds like a plan. Because my bad decision making can really cost me the ones I love…and I've lost too many already."

"I think both of us have Alexis. I don't have much in the way of family left either…unless you count Ava and she's off god knows where doing god knows what."

"When I thought I'd come so close to losing Molly…I thought of my sister…"

He nodded.

"You mentioned naming your daughter Kristina after her."

"Yes I did…I never knew she existed…no I did when I was a girl. I even hid her from Helena but she's been taken away by our father. Jax, he brought her back to me which was both the best and worst of all possible things."

Julian looked up at her startled but she didn't look away.

"What do you mean? I know she died."

Alexis settled back on the swing, as it swayed gently.

"She was killed in a warehouse explosion…oh she wasn't the target. The innocent never are, they're just in the wrong place at the wrong time."

"One of Sonny's warehouses…"

"Yes, he was in the midst of another mob war. They continue on and on, only the players change."

"So who was this player?"

"Luis Alcazar and his brother Lorenzo. Luis ordered the hit that killed my sister."

He frowned.

"Luis Alcazar's been dead for years."

"I know…"

He saw the expression on her face, the coldness in her eyes and he figured out the rest.

"You…you killed him?"

She pursed her lips.

"Yes I did. It didn't start out that way but that's how it ended."

He needed to process that information.

"The Alcazars were weapons dealers. Very nasty and ruthless, most families didn't associate with them."

She sipped her beer.

"Nice to know that you mobsters have _some_ standards but you're right. They were cruel and after Luis killed my sister, he rubbed it in my face. Tormented me with it until one day…"

She paused collecting herself.

"I was pregnant with Kristina and argued with him," she said, "I went into labor early and I needed help. I begged him not to just leave me there but he walked away…"

Julian recoiled, thinking Luis really had no honor.

"So what happened?"

"A man…a nice man helped get me to the hospital where I had my baby."

Julian sipped his beer. It had shocked him a bit to hear what she'd done to a man that frankly the world was better off without. He'd heard about Luis' demise but not much in the way of details. Just one less mobster he'd have to worry about vanquishing during his triumphant return to PC.

"So now that you know that story…I think it's time for me to head down to the beach and finish my book."

"Wait…"

"Why? I've just slipped up and given you more information you can use. I don't know what got into me."

"You'd think I'd…of course you do…"

"I don't care. Everyone in PC knows all about it anyway. It's all over your newspaper's archives. Maybe when they do the next retrospective on his demise, they'll come back and interview me…"

"You were avenging your sister's death."

"Something a Cassadine even an illegitimate one might not usually do given that we usually kill each over for the crown jewels or something else."

He had looked at her, as she reflected on the past watching emotions old and newer play out on her face.

"Well, you'd think after all that I'd learn to be more careful but I seem to have this addiction to bad boys…"

His mouth curved into a smile.

"Yes you certainly do. The problem is you treat that like a bad thing."

She snorted.

"So you say because you got great mileage out of that weakness for a while…"

He paused.

"Alexis…why are you so sure I was using you?"

She gave him a pointed look.

"Because you were…and don't say no. Remember at Kelly's when I told you something about Sonny not knowing who you really were of course and you turned right around and used it on Shawn?"

He cleared his throat.

"Oh that…that was personal, it wasn't business. I was making it clear of my intentions towards you."

She felt like tossing her hands in the air.

"Does that mean what I think it does?"

"You know what it means."

She heard the tone that sounded suspiciously alpha male in his voice and she fell silent.

"I just don't know what that even means," she said, "You ahem, announced your claim and then you fell into bed with was it Carly first? Or…"

He interrupted.

"Did you ever do anything you regretted? That was on my list of them."

She sipped her beer thoughtfully.

"I guess I'll have to take your word for that."

He sighed.

"Alexis I came to PC with an agenda I'd been working on for years, that'd been my focus all that time and then…when I saw you in the Floating Rib, something familiar… "

"Join the club but that mystery's been solved," she said, "You knew way before I figured it out."

"Alexis…"

She shook her head.

"You chose what mattered to you and I'm judging you for that. But you hurt people along the way including my daughter…our daughter. She forgave you but I'm still her mother and I don't like seeing my children hurt."

She softened her words when she saw his reaction. There was no point tearing him apart over it when they had to work together at least for a while…and live together.

"Look this will be all over soon and then we'll go back to our lives. You'll always be Sam's father and I respect that. She wants a relationship with you and her son and I know despite everything you want that too. But for me, I served my part. I got you two together. So that'll just have to be enough."

"Is it?"

She sighed.

"I can take care of myself. I can protect myself. I've been doing it for so long mostly by myself I don't know any other way to be."

But as they settled back in the swing, sipping their beer and lapsing into silence, he thought he might have not been there when she needed him before but now, he had no plans to be anywhere else.


	19. Chapter 19

She loved the way he looked at her just now, his eyes penetrating through all of her defenses. Before it had been like they were standing on opposite sides of the abyss but know, she felt him move closer to her, before he swept her up into his embrace.

When his lips touched hers, they were tentative but they didn't stay that way. His hands smoothed the fabric of her dress against her body at her waist, her back and finally in front where…

"Relax…they won't bite."

He blinked his eyes and looked at her and she almost chuckled at him as he finally did stroke where she wanted him to with his fingers, her breasts pushed against her shirt and when his eyebrows narrowed just slightly that's when she knew he had felt her nipples harden beneath the fabric.

Oh she wanted him now in so many different ways, but she looked towards the dungeon door, surely the evil man that they had locked up inside there would break it down any moment, leaving its splintered edges on the floor. But Julian still explored her mouth with his own, his stubble tickling her face and then…she felt his tongue slip in between her lips, exhilarating her. Her heart leapt because she had spent hours waiting for if not her prince, then this frog standing in front of her to kiss her just like that.

She felt it all the way to her toes, underneath the boots she had worn to scale the castle. The one where he had been held prisoner by the evil queen Carly who had tried to weave a spell on him so he'd do her bidding…she had to work quickly to break any remaining hold the queen had on him.

So she did the only thing she could think of, hidden in her memories involving the fairy tales she had been told…and that's why she had kissed him.

Oh wait, now she felt the cool air against her breasts because Julian had undone her dress and his hands now fondled her as he leaned to kiss her again, the warmth of his actions filling her in ways that robbed her of her thoughts…

Crash! Bang! Ow!

Ow…?

Neither of them had expected that but one of the queen's evil lords had apparently stubbed his toe while kicking the wooden door down. A litany of profanities which followed confirmed that theory.

She looked at Julian, her mouth still swollen from his ardent attentions.

"We probably shouldn't stay here," she surmised, "We need to find a quick way out."

Julian glanced towards the window.

"There…"

Then the door finally came crashing down and the room filled quickly with men, bearing large swords.

* * *

Alexis lifted up quickly, her breath coming quickly. God, what a nightmare when the men had come after the two of them…then again wait, before that part, it had gotten downright steamy between the two of them. Chalk another crazy dream to add to the stack of them she'd experienced ever since been holed up with the man who'd messed with her head and then her heart.

He never died in her dreams but he came close and she didn't know what to read into that. Was she afraid he'd die? Did she want him to die? Was this some kind of wish fulfillment deal going on in her dreams? Were these feelings she kept locked away until her defenses weakened during sleep?

No they were just dreams that was all.

She wondered how he slept at night since he'd been here. What kind of dreams filled his head. He did seem much better rested in the morning than she felt. But then not much of anything seemed to affect Julian…not even when she'd known him as Derek Wells.

Before hitting the sack, alone of course, she had this long conversation over beer on the porch swing about what had led her down the path where she had been so close to marrying a professional hit man for the mob. She'd even talked about how she'd killed the mobster who'd murdered her sister. He'd mostly listened, paid close attention and asked a question, made a comment here and here. Did any of it matter to him or was he storing it away with all the other info she'd spilled to him to use against an enemy? At this point she'd been too tired and a bit liquored up to care.

They had split up before midnight and headed to their respective rooms to sleep alone. But she had thought about him as she tried to drift off…what it'd be like if instead they had gone into the same bedroom for a change. One with only one bed, good sized of course which they would share.

Oh no you don't Alexis.

No, she and Julian, they could never do that here. After all, he had gone for women like Carly who were dramatic to the point of being over the top and manipulative. Olivia who was histrionic and flaky and still into Sonny who'd likely see the inside of a prison cell very soon.

Both mafia molls and members of Sonny's harem, of much higher standing than Alexis. Not that she minded in the least! Sonny was better as someone she didn't have to deal with directly in a personal way. A woman could run herself ragged enabling him and many had tried.

Olivia would be more the type who would bump into a shelf of crystal knocking them on the floor in shards of pieces. Carly would be more the type to fling crystal around in a tirade breaking it after walking into one of her hotel rooms using the master key to catch someone doing something or snooping.

But maybe Julian was like Sonny and just went for the same kind of woman. If Alexis knew one thing, she knew she could never be like Carly and Olivia and had no desire to do so. She was fine with who she was and the life she'd built for herself…her one weakness though was for bad boys and she'd spent a lot of years running away from that.

Okay maybe that wasn't the right choice of words because the only man she'd really fled from wasn't off the bad boy list. He was one of the nice ones. She'd pictured inside her head the life that they'd live together. Getting married, moving into a house with Kristina and maybe having children together.

But as much as she tried to fit herself into that life she knew deep down she could never ever live it. It'd suffocate her slowly day by day, hour by hour and at first she'd never even notice.

Until it was too late.

Shawn, he had seemed so safe because she knew she'd never love him and her decision to accept his proposal didn't change that and he'd sworn to her that he'd changed. He had his secrets clearly, those moments of silence between them but she never considered the fact that she might have gravitated towards another remorseless killer

She'd have to just face up to the reality that nice men weren't in her future. No, she'd been hardwired since the time she had taken her first breath, to embrace bad boys. Her father, bad boy, half-brothers, bad boys…first guy she had sex with…bad boy…turned into a ruthless mobster. More bad boys, more kids…mobsters, sleazy Ric and of course Jerry, the poster child for PC terrorism.

Now one of the bad boys was sharing a house with her, sleeping in another room and as far as her relationships, he'd been the original bad boy. Only a few hours some of it in a drunken haze and yet he'd shaped her life in ways she hadn't known until years later, beginning with the baby they'd created together.

Still, she had to figure out once again how to accept it and move forward. She didn't know if she'd be able to live with the realization that she'd always be attracted to and attract one bad boy after another. Maybe it was time to start to try to do that.

But with one of them on the roster, she still wanted more and she didn't know what to do about that.

* * *

Julian had tossed and turned not able to sleep well. His dreams had been of a brunette woman with impossibly sensual green eyes like the emeralds she had favored. The ones she wore over her creamy skin in one of his favorite dreams, mostly because that's all she had been wearing. She had been kissing his body, slowly by inch as he lay back his mind spinning. He'd clench the bed sheet when her lips found his favorite parts. She had just snuck into his bed like some form of seductress, really this couldn't be someone he'd said goodnight to only several hours earlier.

Then who was she?

He had traced the emerald necklace around her neck, looking into her face, just before he kissed her again, savoring the flavor of her mouth. Where the necklace rested on her breasts he had paid extra attention and her reaction in his dream had woken him back into the real world.

Where anything like what he had experienced with her didn't exist. In fact, she lay asleep in another room probably not dreaming like he had been. He lay back in his bed, the sheet tucked around him and tried to get back to sleep and not to dream.

But then a part of him so wanted to return to that world where the two of them broke their rules and had become lovers. So maybe as long as that existed in his sleep, then it didn't really count. He would never have to explain himself to her as to why like a guy, he looked at her wondering what could have been.

He knew that he had hurt her, not only through his actions but simply by existing. For insinuating himself into her life and her heart while hiding his true nature from her. But as much as he'd caused the rift by hiding his mobster background that's not what had dealt the biggest blow. She had been vulnerable when she met up with Shawn and that had partly been his fault. He'd been busy getting Coleman to do some work for him, surveillance on a situation looming like storm clouds in the distance. Coleman hadn't agreed to it at first until he laid out the terms.

The man had his soft spots.

Shawn had made his move and Julian guessed that an added bonus would be that his new wife couldn't incriminate him on the witness stand if subpoenaed at some grand jury hearing. When Julian had gotten wind of it, he did what he did best which was acted.

If Shawn wanted to play the wounded bridegroom and victim, he could go ahead. It wouldn't last much longer.

The woman who filled his dreams at night lately, most likely due to the close proximity they shared these days and nights. But as soon as they dealt with Shawn and the rest of his cohorts including his sister, the sooner they could return to their lives in PC and things would start it over and this time he'd get it right. Yes, that would definitely be what happened, he thought as he felt his eyelids close again.

He'd be bucking a serious tide because he knew when the feds got done with Sonny and his organization they more than likely would come after him. He could wind up sent to prison for the rest of his life too. Life was filled with risks and this time he could be out of luck if his past caught up with his present.

But as he drifted back to his dreamland, a part of him rebelled against that reality.


	20. Chapter 20

Alexis put the latest issue of the newspaper down thinking she had read just about enough. She had picked it up that morning to see Shawn's face splashed again on the front page with the headline "Jilted" on top of his crestfallen face. Wait a minute, she had ditched their nuptials quite a while ago and he was still playing the wronged fiancé angle.

But what got her a bit steamed was the sidebar where they splashed one of her mug shots, god if she could only figure out which one and then speculated about whether or not she'd gone crazy and a date with Fern cliff was in her future.

They mentioned the time when she'd had DID, no faked having DID to avoid taking the rap for Luis' murder and then dressed up in drag to work as a male butler at the Q mansion. She'd been a little surprised to have pulled that one as long as she did…though she knew Alice had gunned for her after finding out her "crush" was actually one runaway wedding away from being a Q in law.

Oh and they mentioned that aborted wedding too even showing a picture of her running away in her wedding gown…wait a minute was that really her in the photo?

Her history…her one night stand with the mayor she barely remembered…smoking happy grass to get through chemo for Christ's sake…sleazy Ric's attempts to get her declared an unfit mother of Molly after the stunts he'd pulled.

Why wasn't anyone paying attention to the fact that Shawn been exposed as a professional hit man? And not just any hired killer either but one who worked for the five families…instead of as a poster child for jilted men everywhere. Her image on the other hand hadn't been doing nearly as well. She was being portrayed by that talk show duo Ken and Kendra as the scarlet woman, the one who no man could trust not to love him and leave him hanging. They hadn't quite yet figured out how to define Julian yet but give them enough time and they would paint him as her partner in crime, a villain by the same brush.

Another one of her bad boys, one who'd blown up a few boats in PC harbor and may or may not have been responsible for the disappearance of a few local mobsters and other riff raff.

Fortunately, Julian had gotten up with the sun to go running on the beach. She hadn't had any of those crazy dreams she'd been having mostly because she'd tossed and turned about some of what he'd been saying to her.

He'd looked a bit sleepy this morning, hair a bit mussed up and hadn't really answered her when she asked him how he slept last night.

She got up away from the headlines and went to the kitchen to stir up some breakfast. Damn, she thought she really had to start picking her men better. Stay away from narcissist sociopathic characters and psychotic killers. Maybe next time she'd try a professional matchmaker. But then she really didn't mind this latest one…she might even like him better if he hadn't hurt her so much. But wasn't that what a bad boy was destined to do?

She got into the refrigerator and pulled out the carton of eggs. Just what she needed now was to whip up an omelet and put some chilies in it along with sausage and ham. She took several eggs to crack into a bowl and then whip into a frothy mix, just perfect for her favorite recipe.

One of the cooks who hadn't been terrified of Helena Cassadine had taught her how to make it while she'd been living at the compound. She took her meals separately and often alone given that her "aunt" hadn't been around much either. Stefan sometimes joined her collecting the ingredients she needed, while they talked about where he went to school, his trips abroad. She didn't see much of the world outside the island that imprisoned her so she often lived through books and his detailed adventures.

Thinking about that now, she took some colorful looking chilies out trying to remember if they'd been part of the recipe and then figured it didn't really matter as long as they gave it some flavor and kick.

She heard the door open from somewhere and realized that Julian had returned from his run and sure enough, he walked in the kitchen dressed in his workout clothes. He went to get some water to drink.

"Hard run?"

Julian sipped his water looking at her. A thorough appraisal as always as if he were looking at something of great value. Then he smiled.

"Those dunes are tougher than they look."

She nodded wondering why he'd chosen to work himself so hard when they were hiding out on a vacation. But he never allowed his fitness level to drop, always wanting to remain sharp for whatever happened. She knew at this point that anything could happen especially if Shawn was intent on revenge.

"Any trouble…?"

She frowned at his question while pouring the egg mixture on the skillet.

"No…why I mean beyond the latest headlines about the scorned groom…?"

He looked at her and then at her cooking, seeing all the ingredients lying on the kitchen counter, knowing that she engaged in culinary pursuits mainly to relax.

"Alexis…you planning on feeding an army…?"

She looked around her at the peppers that she still had laid out and the carton of eggs.

"No, I'm just making an omelet," she said, "Would you like one?"

He nodded.

"More greens and less reds though," he said, "Alexis you know Shawn's going to be exposed when the five families case goes to court."

She sighed, working the omelet as it sizzled.

"That could be months," she said, "I've never been vilified like that before not even when Jerrry was arrested."

Of course there had been the times she'd been arrested but she didn't want to go into that.

Because with the Jerry thing and the perplexing Mayor Floyd thing, she'd been treated almost like a femme fatale. She wondered why the media gave these men all the breaks and painted the women as being the villainesses.

Her omelet was finished soon and she scooped it on a plate to enjoy while Julian cooked his own so he could join her. She remembered back to when Sonny's wedding with Connie had gone bust. The columnists for the social sections of the newspapers had been more sympathetic with him though there had been this ongoing debate for a while among them and various talk shows about whether or not his profession had needlessly brought danger into their private lives.

Alexis hadn't envied Julian's personal life being put in the spotlight for debate and discussion like that and when it had been her turn…she had almost left town for a while.

"Alexis it won't last long," he said, "I'll make sure the truth about all of Shawn's crimes come to light."

She rolled her eyes.

"Oh great then I'll just look like a dimwit woman who can't tell Prince Charming from Jack the Ripper."

She walked to the breakfast nook with her omelet and some fresh orange juice and he watched her dressed up in some faded cotton sweats and a tee-shirt that rose just off of her pants exposing some creamy skin. She's always been a beautiful woman; the way she looked often took his breath away though he never said anything about it to her. Didn't want to spoil what they had going between them which was trying to team up together to make sure that they dealt with this mess.

Julian followed her in a few minutes after he'd finished his own omelet shaped somewhat like…never mind. She smiled at that with some pink in her cheeks as he sat down next to her.

"You're a woman who goes into something with her whole heart and who takes chances," he said, "and he took advantage of that and of you…he's the one who did wrong not you."

She looked up at him from her food.

"Thank you but after Jerry I really thought I knew better than to get involved with another criminal."

He paused with his meal and looked at her carefully, choosing his next words even more so.

"Maybe you got involved with Shawn a bit quickly but…"

Her eyes flashed for a moment but then she nodded slowly instead.

"Maybe you're right …but it's not for you to say Julian."

She didn't want to finish her thought because it might take her where she didn't want to go.

"I have a feeling it was something that I did."

She looked up at him sharply. Actually when she'd thought about it, it had been something he hadn't done or more accurately hadn't said…but he wouldn't know that.

"What do you mean?"

He sighed, after taking another bite of his omelet.

"I'd been thinking about it lately," he said, "what happened when everything came out."

She closed her eyes thinking he was so close to nailing it and her. At least in the ballpark already.

"Yeah what about it…?"

He paused again.

"When a beautiful woman told me a few things…."

Oh wow, he'd cut to the chase so quickly considering that night and what he said had stood between them for a few months. Back when there'd been a mob war going on and it seemed like everyone had to take sides.

"I said that because I thought everything was different...and I thought I'd never get another chance."

Her eyes looked guarded when she said just that much and he knew that there was a lot she wasn't sharing with him. That she'd kept to herself for months about what had transpired between them. Even after the mob war had been declared a draw when the feds came in to clean up.

"I know…but I never even answered you."

She smiled to make glide over the feelings that remembering had stirred in both of them.

"You didn't have to…I wasn't expecting it, it was just something I had to tell you."

He picked up the faintest trace of wistfulness beneath her smile and matter of factedness.

"It deserved an answer," he said, "I should have…"

She shook her head.

"No Julian, things were so crazy back then," she said, "You'd been through so much already…everyone was after you and you were after Sonny and a lot of us with divided interests…more than loyalties were caught in the middle."

"You weren't the only one Alexis…though putting you and Sam in that position..."

But he had and had nearly been carted off to jail while she'd been forced to deal with a lot of things to protect her family. That whole experience had left her emotionally raw including when it came to him and she might have been more susceptible to Shawn's declaration's of reforming himself than she might have been otherwise.

"But you did Julian and we're both here now."

He nodded because that was certainly true and she'd become even more beautiful since then but she'd changed in different ways. Beautiful and passionate but more wary and wounded.

It reminded him of that night so long ago when they'd both first met in New Hampshire…he didn't know why he thought about it now but…

Then the doorbell rang interrupting them both and they looked at each other wondering who it might be.


	21. Chapter 21

Alexis opened the door after Julian had pulled his handgun out and palmed it out of sight. They flashed each other that look and then both turned their attention to the door. She opened it cautiously after seeing the top of red hair piled up on a woman's head.

She didn't recognize her so Alexis 's guard went up and she could sense that Julian's own body had tensed at the unfamiliar sight.

"Hi….I'm Cinder…I know you might not know me but I sell beauty products door to door…like Avon."

Julian and Alexis looked at one another. Alexis folded her arms at Cinder who appeared in front of her dressed in casual dark slacks and a white print blouse. Her hair looked like it had originally been dark brown judging from the roots.

"You're who?"

Cinder just smiled.

"I'm a friend of Spinelli's and Joey's…they told me that you were on one of their live stream broadcasts."

Alexis tilted her face.

"How do you know them?"

Cinder ignored Alexis's watchful posture and moved into the living room admiring the décor while both Julian and Alexis just watched her carefully.

"We hung out at the coffee shop together…back when we were in NYC living it up.," Cinder said, "Of course that was a while ago and this venture of ours was in its inspiration stage."

"Neither mentioned you."

Julian slipped a hand on Alexis 's shoulder still standing behind her as they both looked at Cinder who didn't seem too flustered by their inquiries.

Cinder just walked over to a chair and sat right down.

"They told me all about your situation."

Alexis just looked at her.

"What do you mean my situation?"

Cinder leaned backward in the chair obviously enjoying herself.

"You were going to marry some jet set businessman who really knows how to fill out Armani… and he turned out to be some kind of professional hit man. Next thing, you take off in a hail of gunfire with some guy presumably this one and the rest is a story waiting to unfold."

Julian rubbed his chin watching Cinder weave out some sort of narrative of Alexis 's relationship with the man she'd just jilted.

"When did you find out anyway he's a hired assassin," Cinder asked, "Just before you met this lowlife in Armani at the altar?"

Alexis sighed despite herself.

"Something like that."

Cinder nodded knowingly.

"I know the type…I don't know if Joey or Spinelli told you but I almost had a fatal romance."

Alexis furrowed her brow.

"They didn't tell us anything about you so how would we know that?"

Cinder shrugged, as Alexis and Julian went to sit down on the couch opposite from where she lounged.

"So you know about Shawn and Carly and Ava and the rest of them," Alexis asked, "What do you know about that crowd?"

Cinder sighed.

"I read about them in the trades…you know Carly had ambitions to break into Hollywood when she was younger. Her trailer trash family promised to pull strings if it'd make her happy but it never worked out. Shawn wanted to really help her with some new business she was planning and I'm not talking about the Metro Court. She wanted to buy a building in the historic district of PC to turn into a huge art gallery for some…painter who used to be a serial killer or something like that."

Alexis' eyes flashed.

"He terrorized my family and Carly's. The difference is that I'm not changing my view of him being a reformed rapist and serial killer based on some brain tumor. Been here done that…"

"Oh I see…well Carly needed some major capital to help this new painter of hers and so Shawn was going to help her get it since Sonny cut off her allowance after all his assets and accounts were frozen by the feds."

That didn't surprise Alexis all that much including about the aborted acting career. Carly had a histrionic bent to her personality that had already manifested itself on several occasions not to mention a huge narcissist streak. Not to mention that Shawn would do what it took to please his sister just like she had done for him by promising to be Alexis's bridesmaid at the almost wedding.

"I don't doubt that."

Julian leaned forward.

"So why are you here?"

Cinder leaned forward too and smiled broadly.

"To help you of course…looks like you need some serious help about now."

Julian and Alexis looked at each other again and then at her.

"How so…?"

Cinder just rolled her eyes at Alexis.

"This coming from the woman who nearly married the hired help of one of the top Five Families…and had to be rescued by Romeo the Mafioso who thought he'd topple Sonny over here…"

Alexis frowned.

"He's not Romeo…he's my…"

"Don't tell me, he's your best…platonic male friend from way back."

Alexis rubbed her forehead.

"Look…Cinder I'm sure that you mean well but Julian and I…we've got work to do here and I really don't think…"

Cinder's eyes narrowed.

"No you really don't think do you," she said, "Joey told me all about you, how you got your law degree at some fancy high fluting school back East but you don't know a thing about enjoying yourself. Grew up repressed in some high falutin' family that called itself royalty or something."

"Excuse me?"

"I mean don't get me wrong he thought you weren't a bad lawyer at all, but you just seemed so very serious."

Cinder just kept talking about someone she knew nothing about…after all, Alexis hadn't really gotten to know Joey all that well. For one thing, she didn't need anyone certainly not a man rescuing her from anything…well except breaking her out of her own wedding to another man. But as for Julian, she'd handle him herself, this time armed with the information she didn't have earlier. No more him using what she told him thinking he was Derek Wells to go after his enemies.

He just stood there looking amused like he did about most everything in situations where he either had the upper hand or didn't need to flex it.

"I had to be professional…he was looking at potential murder charges," Alexis said, "which carried the death penalty or at least a very long prison sentence."

Cinder nodded.

"Yes but even at the engagement party when he toasted to all the new changes he said he'd made in his life as born again businessman you showed up in that dreary grey knit dress…"

"Hey that's one of my favorites."

Julian chimed in.

"Mine too…though not for the same reasons."

Alexis just shot him a look and he arched a brow at her.

"That party got a little wild when Ava and Carly showed up and threatened to break crystal mostly at each other."

Julian sighed and that attracted Cinder's attention.

"I'm sure there's a story here…."

Julian rubbed the bridge of his nose not wanting to revisit that night when he'd been about to blow up something that was still left in PC's harbor and had seen the party from afar. Not knowing at the time until Ava spilled it later on, that Alexis had gotten engaged to Shawn.

The wedding date followed quickly after. It was as they called it a whirlwind engagement.

Alexis sighed.

"Just one of Julian's ex flames and his sister showing up to liven up a party," she said, "Insurance paid for the damage."

"Sounds like both of you need to come with good insurance and anyone that hangs around with you."

Alexis shrugged.

"It's not that bad…anyway how do you plan to help us," she said, "I think we've got it all under control."

Cinder smirked.

"You do…yeah right…I heard there was gunfire in the rose garden and they were contemplating explosives when you bolted from that wedding."

Alexis hadn't been too sure about the explosives but both she and Julian had come close to adding themselves as casualties of another PC wedding gone bad.

"Joey really wants to help you get this Shawn guy," Cinder said, "and I'm a bit soft on Joey…not in the romantic sense of course but I do like to see him happy so I'm offering my assistance."

Alexis believed that Cinder sounded sincere enough, she just didn't know how much Joey's friend could handle especially if the pyrotechnics began shooting off again in earnest. Julian heard his phone buzz and looked at it.

"It's Coleman…I'll take it in the kitchen."

Alexis nodded and watched Julian walk with his phone out of the room leaving the two women alone. She turned to look at Cinder who had also watched Julian leave.

"He's quite a hot looking guy," Cinder mused, "No wonder you left Shawn high and dry."

"I didn't do that because of Julian…I did it for me. Once I found out what he did for a living, no way was I going to marry him."

Cinder leaned forward.

"Then why did you hook up with him in the first place…if he's such a bad boy or was it because of that?"

Alexis shook her head.

"No…I'm not deliberately into bad guys, it just happens that way…I just needed a change after a few things…happened and Shawn claimed he'd turned his entire life around."

"So what's the story then with Julian here," Cinder continued, "Are you into him too?"

Alexis just stared at the woman for a moment.

* * *

Coleman had told him immediately that Shawn and Carly had continued their forays on the talk show circuit selling the image of him as the wronged party, the man who had truly loved the lady lawyer who had jilted him at the altar in an onslaught of violence.

Julian just listened disgusted. The only violence that interested him was in breaking Shawn's face over a hard unyielding surface…because when he thought about what could have happened to Alexis it made his heart drop. What would Shawn have done if he knew that she had discovered the truth about him starting with the photos she discovered?

Love and romance would have gone out the window, replaced by the realization that he'd have to find a way to keep her silent. Alexis might not think too kindly of him now but he didn't take too kindly with thugs even in Armani messing with his family.

His hand not holding the phone clenched at his side.

"So Coleman, you dropping by later," he asked.

"Sure…you want me to bring some takeout from this Thai restaurant that Dianne and I discovered?"

Coleman and Dianne had hit it off at Alexis' and Shawn's engagement party and apparently were an item now. Still Coleman had fond memories of more than one woman.

"You treating her well?"

"Who…you mean Alexis?"

"Damn straight. Look I'm willing to help you but you mess her up and I'll break more than a pool cue over your head. Got it?"

Julian smiled on his side of the phone. Coleman had nothing to worry about because on that, he was talking to a kindred spirit.

"Got you…so anything new?"

Coleman sounded cryptic.

"I'll let you know when we meet up."

"Sure…but we've got to come up with the next stage of our plan to bust Shawn," Julian said, "so that we can get our lives back to normal."

"You mean like things were before Alexis got engaged to that cretin?"

Julian sighed.

"No I mean the way life was before I got so buried up in my business I forgot what's really important in life."

Coleman paused.

"I think that's what the two of you need to do…to spend time with each other as long as you don't hurt her…because she's a fine woman as long as you don't play pool with her for cash. Or clothes."

Julian had to smile at that. Oh, his baby mama had proven to be filled with surprises.

"That's what I want to do," Julian said, "But first I…we got business to take care of here."

"I'll do my part," Coleman said, "and we'll put Shawn, and all the rest of those sorry excuse for mobsters away. Haven't had this much fun since my brief stint in the WSB."

Julian realized that but once they got Shawn out of the picture, then maybe life could go back to normal for him and his family. Maybe even better than it had been before…everything had changed…at least that's what he hoped. The feds and their sweeping probe loomed over their heads but he'd find a way to deal with that.

Still, he and the woman in the other room had a lot to talk about first just like they had been doing. About their past together, their present and most importantly their future.


	22. Chapter 22

Julian returned from the kitchen and saw that Cinder had left the building. He glanced at Alexis who sat on the couch.

"You kicked her out?"

She smiled.

"No…she gave me her tips on makeup and hair for the next pod cast interview."

He arched a brow.

"Next interview?"

She nodded.

"She said we need to launch a marketing campaign to counter what Shawn and Carly have been selling on the airwaves and in the press."

He joined her, kicking his feet up on the coffee table.

"So what did Coleman have to tell you?"

"Not much…oh he did mention he'd break more than a pool cue over my head if I messed you up."

She smiled.

"Good man that Coleman…and quite sexy in his own way."

Julian frowned.

"How sexy?"

She chuckled.

"That's for me to know and you to sit there and wonder about…well I'm off to the beach to finish my exciting novel."

She got up to go and change. He got out his cell phone and made a phone call to Sam.

Sam picked it up on the second ring.

"Hello Julian…."

"Hi Sam how are you and the little guy doing?"

A pause.

"Fine…just fine…listen I haven't heard from my mom but I know she's with you right? Is she okay? Do I need to come up there and kick someone's ass?"

He smiled. Leave it to his daughter to get straight to the point. Wonder who she got that from? He leaned back on the sofa.

"We're enjoying a holiday on the beach. We'd like to see you if you've got time."

"If I've got time…course I got time and I'm so on the assignment that you gave me…Spinelli too. We're doing double hours at the agency."

"Sam, I hope you're still saving time for a life."

She paused.

"Well if you mean me and Silas…your sister is sure making things interesting."

Julian sighed.

"Sam I gave her explicit instructions to not hassle you. So did your mom I understand but you tell me if she does try anything and I'll handle it."

Sam sighed in exasperation.

"I know you mean well….Julian but I can handle my own competition even if it's some nutty aunt who doesn't know how to walk away when it's over."

"Sam…"

"No if you want something to do you take care of my mom. You undo some of what you did to her and make sure nothing happens."

"I'm doing that but well, she's as stubborn as you when it comes to accepting someone's help when there's trouble…must be a family trait."

"Must be…I'm going to settle things here and then Danny and I will drive down to visit you and bring some things…for the day."

"Your mom will be happy to see the two of you and so will I."

He clicked off the phone happy that things were going much better with Sam…now all he had to do was figure out how to navigate the minefield that had become her mother.

* * *

Alexis went down to her familiar spot on the beach to finish her book. She felt the warmth on her skin and watched the waves lap the shore in front of her. Spreading the towel, she lay there and started reading.

She didn't want to think about Julian right now. She'd said too much to him already breaking her promise to herself not to share personal information about herself...not so worried that he'd use it against her to win some objective. But she'd spilled so much already, all that was left was the more difficult truths, the ones she'd kept tightly buried for the most part for many years.

_The sun shone brilliantly over the waters of the Mediterrean Sea sparkling the tips of its waves like diamonds and sail boats bobbed in the distance alongside cruise liners. Alexis had slipped out of her prison to the coastline just a half mile down a stony path and down a twisty staircase to where the packed sand met the bluff. She hadn't come down alone as her cousin Stefan Cassadine had joined her. He'd served as lookout for the servants as well as Helena while she snuck out of her suite. She'd finished the homework the tutor had given her hours away and had grown bored and restless. _

_She and Stefan walked to where the tide tickled their bare feet after slipping off their shoes. She felt the delicious coolness which contrasted the heat that baked the island in the dead of summer. _

"_It's a beautiful day," Stefan said quietly, "I'm going to miss the Island when I head back to Cambridge."_

_Alexis felt sadness that he was leaving, her only friend in a sea of enemies on Cassadine Island. Stavros had left earlier traveling with his father Mikkos to Athens on a business junket and she was always glad when he left the island. _

_But Stefan had protected her from so much. It's just that there were some things even he couldn't prevent. How she felt inside, as if a part of her had died…leaving her mostly numb because grief and sadness were emotions alien to her heritage. _

_The dreams that haunted her at night of what could have been…if only her baby hadn't been ripped away from her…precious moments after she'd been born. _

_Alexis had only held her child once and it'd have to last her the rest of her life. _

"_Hey, you've got to forget about it," Stefan said, "The baby's gone and it's for the best. You need to forget about her and move on with your life. Finish school. Go to Yale, law school and then work alongside me running Cassadine Industries."_

_She barely heard him, her focus out into the endless ocean in front of her that even the horizon couldn't limit. Somewhere out there, her baby lived with a mother who hadn't carried her for nine months and then birthed her in a chalet in Maine hidden away from the world. In her baby's new world, she had a father who loved and raised her, not one she would never know. _

_Her uncle had promised he'd find her baby girl a good home. But the visions in her head of the life her daughter must be living…didn't make her come back to life inside. Stefan's words as logical as they sounded bounced off the surface. _

"_When you leave Stefan I don't know what I'm going to do."_

_He sighed. _

"_Alexis you can handle life here. Just stay out of sight, away from my brother, study hard and one day you'll step foot off the Island again…"_

_She furrowed her brow. _

"_I don't know…something's wrong. Mikkos and his brothers…they're away most of the time. Mikkos seems more on edge and Helena…"_

"_Is just being Helena… My father and uncles are working on some deal…they've been heading to auctions looking for some diamond. But then it's not the first time they've been involved in something crazy."_

_Alexis knew that something dark, something dangerous was brewing on the Island and she knew she just had to figure a way to survive until like Stefan said, she could leave it behind her. That meant pushing down deeply everything having to do with the baby she lost because if she succumbed to it, that would surely keep her prisoner more securely than an island compound out in the middle of an endless sea. _

Alexis blinked her eyes waking up, not realizing she'd nodded off while reading. She was no longer alone. At some point, Julian had joined her.

Wearing his damn speedos again, cursed. She marveled the absolute lack of modesty the man had when it came to shedding clothes. She assumed both Carly and Olivia had found that marvelous too.

"Sam and Danny are coming to visit."

She smiled at him.

"Oh that's good news. I missed them…"

He digested that and then looked at her carefully.

"What's with Stefan?"

She looked at him warily.

"What do you mean?"

"You were sleeping, must have been dreaming and his name came up…"

She sighed.

"Oh…Nothing…you know he's my half-brother. But he's been dead for some years now."

"He doesn't have nine lives like Stavros?"

She narrowed her eyes.

"Apparently not, but then Stefan wasn't Helena's favorite. He wasn't bad enough at least not until much later on."

He chuckled.

"That makes two of us."

"Yeah well, you still have time to change that script if you want. It's up to you to decide what to do. You've got a mess waiting for you back in PC but your social life at least won't hurt for long."

He sharpened his glance.

"Meaning…"

She shrugged.

"You bedded two of Sonny's molls and managed to do Olivia without her seeing you in a vision first. I imagine they'll be waiting for you…with Sonny going off to prison."

He pursed his lips.

"Carly's off helping her business partner Shawn and Olivia's probably hanging out at the FBI station, while they interrogate Sonny."

"That still leaves you plenty of time. Not that I'm judging you but it seems that you might have your hands full."

He chuckled.

"And I thought I was the master of deflection. First of all, both women as you know were part of the master plan."

She rolled her eyes.

"Oh yeah right…that. The one that I took myself out of the running from early on…"

His eyes grew serious.

"The one that thankfully you took yourself out of the running early on…"

She fell silent then.

"So back to Stefan…?"

She blinked her eyes.

"What?"

Julian moved closer to her.

"You were close to him growing up weren't you?"

She nodded.

"We spent time together usually at the beach on the island during the summers I lived there. He's my only friend in that family or was until he went into a dark mood at the end."

"Did he know about Sam?"

She paused looking at the ocean and then glanced over at him.

"Yeah…he did…I spent the summer after she was born back on the Island when he was there. We spent a lot of time together. Mikkos and his brothers were of course gone most of the time planning that whole Ice Princess Caper."

"Ah, the plot to freeze the planet."

Alexis shrugged.

"It almost worked in PC. But I was being tutored to be ready to apply to Yale when I was old enough and the rest of the time…well Stefan helped me sneak out of the compound. He knew it was…hard for me and well Cassadine men don't care much about emotional stuff…they're trained from the cradle but Stefan… he wasn't from the usual mold."

"I'm glad you had someone in your corner."

She smiled but her eyes betrayed some sadness from long ago.

"Me too…

Her hand lay on her towel and he placed one of his hands on top of it and she didn't move her own away.


	23. Chapter 23

Alexis smiled when she picked up the phone.

"Jax, that really is you…good to hear your voice…No…I didn't go through with the wedding…yes there were gunshots fired and some explosions but not many. You know how the media always exaggerates…I'm just surprised the news reached Australia….Oh there was a talk show about it in Melbourne.

Julian returned to his towel after taking a swim in the ocean. He glanced at her and then closed his eyes. He could almost get used to this way of life. Being able to relax underneath the sun on the beach, swim in the ocean and eat on the deck at night.

Oh, and spend time with such a beautiful woman who was on the phone talking to some man he'd heard in passing mostly through his time spent with Carly.

"Well so when are you going to come back to PC? It's a bit crowded with the FBI, ATF and everyone running around now but I and the girls really miss you…Okay well you can stay at our place."

She didn't pay any mind to Julian arching a brow.

"Okay then…no I don't know if Carly's been in trouble…she's running around with Shawn now appearing on talk shows. Jax…you know when it comes to Carly and her children…she just gets too busy for them sometimes…"

She clicked off the phone and saw Julian looking at her. She smiled at him.

"Oh that's Jax, my favorite ex-husband," she said, "He's thinking about coming to visit…when things die down a bit in PC."

"That could be a while. He might have to be patient."

She enjoyed the heat of the sun on her shoulders…it was such a beautiful day.

"Why? Don't tell me you have a problem with it because really you have no right to do that," she said, "Hey you did what you felt you had to do with…Carly and Olivia and I'm leaving that to you. I expect you to do the same with my relationships."

He sighed.

"But you and Jax…"

She shook her head and got up to head on out to the water. It looked a bit chilly, but she'd done a lot of swimming beginning when she'd been a young girl on Cassadine Island so she walked into the water and dove beneath the waves to swim clean strokes through the water.

Julian was going to ask her about her relationship with Jax…the celibate marriage. He didn't get that information from her so she wondered who had spilled it. Jax had been the perfect husband. Yeah the sex might have been great with Ric but when his sleazy side resurfaced, she'd classified that marriage as her least favorite of them.

The water felt good against her skin and it reminded her of her time on the Island doing one of the few things she liked to do.

* * *

Julian watched her head to the water and knew she hadn't liked what she said about Jax. Carly had dropped some information about her ex-husband. They'd been walking down the hallway of the courthouse because AJ was having another court hearing for allegedly killing Connie and it'd been delayed.

He'd heard a familiar voice and walked into another courtroom nearby where he saw Sonny's son Dante and his wife Lulu sitting at a table while his ex-employee that nosy Maxie sat at the other table. His newspaper had been covering some lawsuit involving a surrogacy gone horribly bad.

He meant only to peek inside and get back to Carly and Franco but saw Alexis dressed in one of her smart business suits arguing before a judge, totally on fire. She used her hands to emphasize her point for her clients. She glanced in his direction but if she saw him she didn't let on, she was totally focused on what she was doing.

Too bad she worked for Sonny as a defense attorney because he'd give anything to have her on his own team. In more ways than one…but she'd been getting too damn close to the truth and he couldn't afford that right now.

Ava had dug at him about Sam poaching on Silas and he'd had to remind her again that Sam and his grandson were off limits.

Anyway, he'd been mesmerized by Alexis in the courtroom. He thought she raised good points but then Franco's attorney Dianne stood up and made counter arguments. He watched Alexis sit down like a prize fighter in the corner of the ring considering her next move and conferring with her clients.

Worthy opponent didn't even begin to describe her. Yet he'd been the one who'd backed off because he'd been fighting his mob war and had his own agenda to pursue and she was just one step away from blowing his cover.

He could see why watching her now and when Carly joined him in the courtroom he didn't notice. His eyes were on the woman in front of him.

During the break, Alexis stayed at the desk with her clients but Dianne walked up to him to stump for the DA's race against Scotty Baldwin.

"Hey, Derek…Carly you hear for the Franco hearing?"

Carly nodded.

"I'm sure you'll do your best with him because you're the best lawyer in PC."

Julian didn't know about that. But Dianne laughed.

"Alexis was sure on her game this morning," she said, "but I think the judge ultimately will side with my clients."

Carly nodded.

"Alexis isn't…bad but she's been out of the courtroom a while what with the crisis with Danny and all that…and you've just got so many more skills…"

Julian coughed.

"I don't know about that. Some of it comes naturally, the instinct to go for it…no matter what. I don't know if my money's on you Dianne."

The attorney snorted.

"Alexis is sharp. Oh yeah, you're the bone marrow donor aren't you? Alexis talked about you but didn't mention your name.

Carly interjected.

"Danny's doing very well back at home with Sam and Derek and I…we've been busy."

"I'll bet…Well Alexis and I might fight in the courtroom but we've decided to bury the hatchet over drinks at the Floating Rib. She's going out on a date and well, someone's got to give her advice."

Julian arched his brows.

"A date?"

Dianne nodded.

"Yeah she was interested in some other guy…but that's not going anywhere. Not surprised, not every guy can hang with a woman like her. She's not like some women who are simple…or in some cases simple minded…"

She flashed Carly a sympathetic look that didn't seem to Julian all that sincere.

"I'm glad that you two found each other."

She walked away and Julian watched her go. Carly blew a tendril of hair out of her face.

"God what was that all about? Sometimes I don't understand her."

But Julian did. He just didn't know what he was going to do about it.

* * *

Thinking back later, on the beach he decided to head back to the house to work on some plans for the next meeting they would have with Coleman and he looked forward to Sam and Danny's visit.

He walked into the house to turn on the television to catch up on the news.

"This is Crystal Garner with the latest updates on the runaway bride and her partner who are rumored to be holed up somewhere in New York State…"

Her partner Beau Starr nodded.

"_Yes…but New York is a big state…so it's like looking for a needle in a haystack by everyone from Shawn Butler the businessman turned jilted groom, the PCPD and now the feds…"_

Julian arched his brow. Wow, they were really sending the dragnet after them.

"Shawn is with us on the air right now. He wants to reach out to his fiancée who he said is confused if she thinks she's still a hit man…"

The screen focused on Shawn.

"_It's not true that I'm still a hired hit man for Sonny let alone the Five Families and…those other rumors about my other connections…lies all lies. I urge Alexis, honey you need to just come back and we'll talk and straighten out all these misunderstandings…give our love a chance."_

Alexis walked in just as Julian turned the television off.

"What was that? More drama…"

He smiled at her.

"Not much interesting…how was your swim?"

"Good…very refreshing…so what's on the menu? We have any meetings?"

He shook his head.

"I was thinking maybe going out…"

She frowned.

"Is that safe?"

"Is anything?"

She shrugged.

"You have a good point. I'd asked myself the same question about you…"

That brow arched.

"Oh really…you mean the mobster agenda I had going…"

She paused.

"Not really…you got so…piqued when I tried to find the truth about who you really were Julian and yet if you hadn't been throwing out all those damn hints…"

"Oh that…"

"I mean I know you just did it because it made you feel more powerful…to have that kind of edge over another person and you didn't want to lose that…"

"Alexis…"

She went to the kitchen to fetch herself a bottle of water and sipped it.

"No…no need to explain yourself. I do get it. You had to keep your past…well present as Julian Jerome a big secret from everyone…I do get that. But to hide the fact that you're Sam's father…that's what I don't understand."

"I can…"

She cut him off.

"I know you can…but Julian, you…we have the most amazing daughter, well I've been blessed to have three amazing daughters but you…I don't know how you could have known so long and just walked away from it."

He sighed.

"It was hard. Harder than you'd ever know."

"I mean I was forced to give her up when she was born…and yeah when we met up again we weren't the best of friends…not even close but…I don't get it."

"She knows the truth now…"

"Yes she does…and you're damn lucky she forgave you."

He stared at her daring her to look away from him.

"Have you…forgiven me?"

She threw up her arms.

"What kind of question's that? This wasn't…it isn't about me…you…me I was just some young girl you had in the backseat of his car and walked away from…frankly from what I heard on the dossier on Julian Jerome I got from Duke and Anna, it doesn't sound much like him…but again this isn't about us…it's about you and your daughter."

"I love Sam. She knows that."

Alexis softened.

"I know she does…and it's up to the two of you to work out what relationship you want to have. I did my job. I brought you together."

"You did more than that…"

She tilted her head studying the man who stood in front of her.

"You thought I was just fine as long as you could keep me in a box…on the Derek Wells side of your life….but he's not real. Julian Jerome he's real and to him I was some ONS that turned into a thorn in his side once I decided to get out of that place and find out the truth."

"With Duke right?"

She nodded.

"I used him…he used me…he wanted Julian Jerome the notorious mobster. I wanted Julian Jerome the young man who may have used me but who also showed me the only kindness a man had ever shown me in my life."

The doorbell rang. She just looked at him.

"One of us better get it."

He went to answer it keeping his hand on his gun. She folded her arms waiting.

There stood Dianne and Julian wondered why the hell she'd shown up and how she knew they were even here.

"Dianne…what brings you here?"

She threw him a pithy glance.

"You're a fine looking man but a pitiful excuse for a human being. I'm here to help Alexis…something's come up…"


	24. Chapter 24

Dianne just stood in the doorway looking at Alexis and Julian standing there. She had brought a plastic bag with her.

"Alexis…I hit PC's book store before I drove up here and just in time too…We need to have some margaritas and some straight up women talk so you're going to have to send lover boy here out on an errand."

Alexis glanced at Julian and then back at Dianne.

"We're just going to do dinner if you want to join us."

Dianne nixed that.

"Three's a crowd…so Julian surely you have some _associates_ to meet with in some shady garage or pier to discuss business while we chill back for a while and discuss…men."

Julian looked bemused.

"My calendar is free for the future thanks to the feds and we're having dinner tonight if you'd like to join us."

Dianne snorted.

"I need to talk to Alexis alone before she makes any _rash_ decisions she might regret. I don't know go out and take up a hobby or something. Surely there's something you have to be interested in besides blowing people up and comparing…caliber sizes with Sonny."

Alexis just dropped her mouth at Dianne.

"What the…I don't even know what that means."

Dianne stared at her.

"Oh yes you do Alexis…better than most."

Julian chuckled.

"Okay…I'll go out and occupy myself and you can have your…women's night and then when I return, Alexis we can have a nightcap after Dianne heads back to PC."

Dianne laughed back at him.

"Oh don't pull this alpha male thing on me," she said, "I've got a special place on my belt for alpha males like you."

He smiled.

"I'm not helping you add to it Dianne if that's what you're asking…J don't work that way."

She studied him carefully.

"We'll have to see about whether that's true of Julian or if it was true of Derek or…"

He sighed.

"I think I'll head on out and let you two…talk. I'll see you later…when Dianne's finished."

The older attorney just tilted her head, always sizing him up.

"I've got leave her with some…literature I picked up at the bookstore. She might have some reading assignments."

He smiled.

"They'll have to wait until tomorrow. We've got other plans…"

Dianne shrugged.

"I'll be done…really you're not bad to look at but you really should have stuck to those simpler women, you know like Carly and Olivia rather than…"

Alexis put her hand up.

"Dianne it's all right…he's leaving and I've got plenty of tequila here somewhere. Ingredients to make Tapas too…if you're up to that."

Dianne sighed.

"I could go for that. PC was lacking in many things but one of them was a good Castilian restaurant. Whenever I eat a tapa I always think of my ex Fernando the bull fighter…damn he was good with a cape and a few other things."

Julian took that as his cue to leave. After he departed, Dianne touched Alexis' shoulder.

"Let's get started with this party," she said, "We've got to have a serious talk about your decision to bail from your wedding and shack up with Lover Boy…"

Dianne had found some jazz to play in the background while they cooked up some tapas the way Fernando had taught her and kept the margaritas flowing. Alexis drank up as she always did with Dianne who since she had to head back to do some handcuffing of her latest, Scotty Baldwin who'd courted her in a manner of speaking during the DA's race.

"He's pretty hot…I never liked the way Laura played him off of her ex Luke. He's not Max but no one will ever be him."

Alexis shrugged.

"Well if he hadn't caught you in bed with Milo you might still be together."

Dianne sighed.

"Nah I'm not wired to be some guy's steady girl…thank god. Life's a candy store Alexis and I like to sample the…different brands of merchandise."

"That didn't include Julian did it?"

Dianne shook her head.

"Not even when he was Derek Wells. Didn't get the feeling he was interested in playing around."

"He was probably too busy playing the latest Mafioso rising from the dead…and dodging my questions."

Dianne smiled.

"He was enjoying your questions like he enjoyed you. He liked being one step ahead of everyone."

Alexis sank into a chair with her latest glass of liquid fire.

"He played me so well. I mean used me…but marrying Shawn would have been a huge mistake."

Dianne nodded.

"Yes it would have been. He's probably got the best body in PC…you can bounce a quarter off of his abs…did I say that?"

Alexis narrowed her eyes.

"You and Shawn?"

Dianne sighed.

"It was very short…he's not a bad…bad guy but I found myself dreaming about his pastrami sandwiches."

Alexis had to laugh at that and it wasn't just the margaritas.

"For me it was his meatloaf…"

Dianne plopped down on the couch.

"Really Alexis…some of the books are good…they deal with what's called the "bad boy syndrome" which is what you've clearly been suffering from all this time…"

Alexis looked at her glass.

"I know…but it's Julian's fault really. He was my first…"

Dianne frowned.

"But he wasn't even a mobster in grooming yet by his father. That came much later didn't it?"

Alexis nodded.

"I was sitting in the bar and he sat there with his friends looking so cool in his leather jacket. So different from the preppy boys. You know it wasn't even that he was a bad boy…I grew up with them all my life…didn't know anything else. I actually liked him because he was so nice…"

Dianne harrumphed.

"Until he got you in the back seat of his car…"

Alexis furrowed her brow.

"No…actually I think I was more…pushy than he was as I remember. I was so determined to be someone else…if only for one night."

"Alexis...the wild child. Who'd have thought?"

"Hey….I've had my moments…"

Dianne raised a glass.

"Yes you have…and three daughters to show for them."

Alexis softened looking at her glass.

"I love my daughters. It was so difficult bringing all of them into this world but it was a best thing Dianne. Every time I held onto them I felt like I'd won….against all the Cassadines. But with Sam, it was so short…the time I had with her and I thought it'd have to last a lifetime."

"She came back and…after a while she became family. I love walking into your house…all that estrogen in one place."

Alexis smiled.

"Danny's the first boy in the mix. But they all love him so much like they love each other."

"And you…you're lucky to have all that and no one fought harder than you did…not that some of us always made it easy…"

Alexis knew she was talking about being so rough on Sam to do her job…but they had begun to move past that.

"Family matters…"

Dianne laughed.

"I'll have to take your word for it. For me, my work is my life…that and plenty of sex…"

* * *

Julian drove down the curvy highway that hugged both the ocean and the mountains. This part of the state was always beautiful and he'd spent plenty of time hiding out here including while he was reinventing himself.

Now coming back as his own identity again, things had come full circle. He hadn't minded being shooed out of the house by Dianne. Whatever she said to Alexis or whatever they did, wouldn't impact his own plans.

He stopped on a rocky cliff overlooking the ocean and sat in his car…

* * *

_Julian ran after Alexis once the court ended its session in the hallway. She glanced at him, a trace of a smile on her face just before she hid it behind that professional exterior she wore. _

"_You really were impressive in there," he said, "I'd heard great things about you but you outdid them all."_

_She shrugged, putting something back in her briefcase. _

"_I did my job. Now Dianne's a master in the courtroom, tough to beat," she said, "A worthy opponent."_

_He smiled at that. _

"_You know if you're looking for an attorney…closer to home you might want to think about hiring her to join your staff. I'm sure she could handle media law."_

"_Someone will snap her up then. I have my eye on the other attorney…"_

_She shot him a warning look. _

"_Derek…"_

"_I'm serious. I could use someone like you working for me."_

_She sighed. _

"_No…I don't think so. I'm good at my job, damn good…though I'm more of a corporate attorney…"_

"_For businessmen right?"_

_She didn't appear fazed. _

"_Yes…but I'm not like Dianne. Oh I'll fight hard for my clients…I play to win after all in all games and law is just another game with a restricted player list."_

"_But…because I'm sensing one here."_

_She paused and grew more thoughtful. _

"_I'm here because I work for Sonny and his son…though Lulu's my nephew's half-sister. It's also a bit challenging to side with what legally is an adoptive family over a woman who's being sued over her biological child."_

"_Because of you and Sam…"_

_She nodded. _

"_I get what Maxie might be going through. Not that the facts in evidence are the same but giving up your own child, your own flesh and blood isn't something you ever get over…or ever forget. I admit to facilitate doing that to someone else…well I'm a professional, I have a job to do and I'll do it…"_

"_Alexis…we all are faced to do things that we might not want to do as part of the careers we've chosen for ourselves."_

_She considered that._

"_You're right…I'll be glad when this is over but family law…it's so complicated…so protracted and always emotional as it should be since it's about families and breaking them up."_

"_Sometimes those families can reunite again…"_

_She gave him a surprised look and then suddenly they heard footsteps behind them and she didn't need to look to see that Carly was walking up to her _

"_Derek…Franco's ready for his latest hearing. We really should go…"_

_Alexis just shook her head at all the men jumping aboard the Carly merry go round. She wouldn't have figured Derek for one of them but she should have known better._

"_Hello Carly…"_

_The other woman's smile was brittle. _

"_Alexis…Derek and I were just on our way there but he got lost. No problem...they were waiting for Dianne anyway."_

"_Good luck…he's going to need it."_

_Carly's face wore a pout. _

"_And what do you mean by that?"_

_Alexis smiled. _

"_Carly, it's sometimes amusing to watch you play your little games and juggle the men who buy into them but I've got to meet with my clients…."_

_Derek interjected. _

"_Remember what I said…"_

_She looked back at him. _

"_Like I said, Carly's a good juggler if you're into that kind of thing."_

_She walked off and he just watched her go, slightly stunned._

* * *

He remembered that now and how she'd called him on being with Carly which Carly gave him no shortage of grief about that awful Alexis and how she was sooo jealous of her because all the men gravitated to her instead of Alexis. Ironic considering the circumstances that had brought him together with Carly in the first place.

Alexis had zinged him on that matter of factly and rightfully so. He'd not done anything about it back then when the hiding of some secrets trumped the revelation of others but that just made him all the more determined to do something about it now.

Alexis lay on the couch pretty sauced after drinking more margaritas than originally planned. She didn't usually drink, not like this except when with Dianne. Blame that on the one night spent years ago when she'd had been drunk and the horrible price paid for it.

Except for Sam of course. But the rest of it…

"I think your daughter knows you pretty well. She really told you to saddle up with the guy? Her own father?"

"She didn't know it at the time. God, I'm rethinking a lot of conversations back then. I just didn't figure it out in time. I mean why didn't I at least buy a clue when Derek…I mean Julian was telling me he and Sonny had a lot in common right after I dropped my mobster baby story right in his lap."

* * *

Alexis put a hand on her face partly out of self-recrimination as well as getting hit by a wave of dizziness. Too much tequila not enough ice in that last one. If she didn't know better she'd think Dianne was deliberately trying to get her drunk to spill some truths and incriminate herself.

"Well you were probably nervous and ditzy and all that. You know how you get sometimes."

Alexis sighed.

"Yeah…I just…from the beginning I felt like there was something there…I didn't get it…maybe I knew the truth all along? I mean I know his face had changed, a lot of time had passed but I just couldn't shake it. Of course I had no idea what it was really all about…but to be played Dianne. It just…"

She didn't finish but of course she didn't have to do that. Just then someone opened the front door…


	25. Chapter 25

Julian walked in and saw Dianne sitting on the chair while Alexis lay on the sofa looking like she was asleep?

No, more like she'd been hitting the margaritas too hard. He looked at Dianne.

"How much did she drink?"

Dianne shrugged.

"Three or four…but hey, that's just perfect for you isn't it?"

His eyes flashed.

"What do you mean by that?"

She didn't look perturbed.

"Just that isn't that what you did when you first met her? Bought her drinks, walked her out because it was too warm inside the bar. Led her to your car because it was too cold outside? Got what you want and then dropped her off at the school without a second thought?"

"Dianne this is between her and me. You were leaving?"

She flashed him an irritated look.

"Yes, I've got to head back home…but try not to mess with her too much. You've done enough damage."

She exited out the door heading to her car. Then he turned his focus to the woman on the couch.

"Alexis…"

She mumbled moving on the couch.

"Mmmmm…."

He went and fetched the comforter figuring she'd be settling there for the night wrapping it over her. She moved a bit in response and opened up her eyes.

"Dianne…no wait a minute you don't look at all like her…"

"She left…"

Alexis sat up the comforter wrapped around her still.

"Wow…those margaritas…I should have stuck to wine."

"Dianne said you had a few of them," he said, "among other things she passed along."

She furrowed her brow.

"She's very loud and opinionated…but I wish she'd stuck around."

He sat in a nearby chair.

"Definitely opinionated…"

She frowned.

"I feel dizzy…"

"I'm not surprised…"

She shot him a look.

"No I imagine you're not…I listened to Dianne singing your virtues…well no more like your flaws."

"So I heard. She gave me an earful on the way out. Alexis…what did you tell her?"

She frowned.

"I'm not sure I remember…but it's none of your business Julian. You've got no right even to ask."

He just looked at her.

"I don't…"

She shook her head.

"I'm not telling you a damn thing about it. Not that I think there's any way you can use it to beat Sonny…god I can't even believe I'm having this conversation with you. It's like talking to Ric."

"Your ex-husband..."

"Yeah he had his moments…Molly was definitely one of the better ones but he's just like you. He used me any chance he could to get back at his brother…only he never used it to try to kill anyone."

She meant Shawn and he knew it. She'd unknowingly and stupidly given him info tying Shawn to Sonny though in all fairness her ex-boyfriend's number had been punched during that odd confrontation between two men in Kelly's with a heavy infusion of testosterone in the mix.

Not much he could say to that.

"I don't trust many people in my life and for some reason I trusted you…and look what happened. The hardest part of it is that there's so much I want to tell you…things I never told anyone…that I think you should know and I can't…because I'll be watching you and thinking of how it'll come back and bite me or someone I care about…or whose life is intertwined with a part of mine."

She started to get up and he tried to stop her.

"Alexis…you should sit down…you're dizzy."

She gave him one of her frosty stares.

"I'm fine…I'll be better if we just stick to our plan and leave the rest out of it."

She moved past him and entered her bedroom closing the door behind her. Julian just watched her go, wondering where that came from figuring it must have stemmed from Dianne's visit. The other lawyer had never liked him much. He wasn't sure why though she'd made a play for him and he hadn't been interested.

But then he knew that it wasn't Dianne who'd done wrong here. Because even though Shawn was responsible for nearly taking out Molly in his botched hit, Julian had started that war at Kelly's and yeah, he'd used Alexis a bit.

He'd done a lot of things to carry out a war that the feds had shut down after just a few months. All that planning, all the sacrifice and he'd been on the verge of knocking Sonny down as the kingpin of PC. The whole mobster scene would collapse like a house of cards and take a few satellites with it starting with the PCPD.

The phone rang and he picked it up.

"Julian…"

It was Carlos, a voice he hadn't heard in a while. That made it guarded as he hadn't known what had happened to his hit man after he'd severely checked him. Carlos had been weakened and made vulnerable by the same forces that Julian had run away from.

"What is it?"

The other man sighed.

"The feds are coming down really hard on Corinthos. But he's not cracking. Olivia didn't last an hour being interrogated. She started singing and then got real hysterical."

Julian sighed, sounded like her. He didn't think she'd last long and it'd be bad for Corinthos. His dalliance with her had been mercifully brief. Sonny had found out about it but Julian doubted he'd pass that info onto the feds.

"What about anyone else?"

Carlos paused.

"They're looking at Shawn carefully…wondering if he's protesting too much about being a changed man. But he just picked up a soft drink sponsorship over this jilted groom campaign he's got going."

That didn't surprise Julian. But he knew Shawn's day of reckoning would come soon enough. The man might think he was smart but the tide of public opinion had ways of turning…sometimes very sharply.

"They're going to subpoena Alexis…and I imagine put an APB on her to get her to appear. They don't buy she's just his defense counsel since they know about Kristina."

Julian digested that knowing how thrilled Alexis would be to learn the feds wanted her to spill all to a grand jury.

"She's not going to be found."

"How do you know that? Oh yeah…the whole wedding deal…man I never had you pegged for a romantic…"

Julian bristled.

"She was going to make a mistake…"

"Peace man…I just meant that when I hooked up with my woman you were all over for me over my distraction…when it came time for the action."

"You were distracted."

Carlos laughed.

"What about you? I just had one woman, a very pretty one to distract me…you had a whole family. Not that I don't feel for you, showing up in PC and then running into your baby mama when you practically get there."

"Carlos let's stick to business. Are the feds looking closely at us?"

His associate sighed.

"Not yet…but it might be a matter of time once they bring down Corinthos…so we better be prepared."

"I wonder how long that will take…"

"Hey boss…we can get ourselves more time if Alexis goes to the grand jury."

Julian vetoed that quickly enough.

"She's done enough to help us and paid for it."

Carlos whistled.

"And you told me I was getting too soft. We got to think quickly cause I got too much to lose to go down."

"We're not going down…they might stop with Sonny if they're using him as an example."

"I don't think so and neither do you."

No Julian didn't but he wasn't throwing his family under the bus to buy some time or even stopping that from happening. But he figured that the feds might start with Ava first, a definite weak link in the operation given how she'd been acting lately.

Carlos read his mind.

"Ava's hitting the talk show circuit about how her whole…affair with Morgan Corinthos was misunderstood."

"So what? She went and did that on her own."

"If she's that unpredictable, she might wind up singing too…on a talk show and they won't need to drag her in front of a grand jury."

Julian sighed knowing that was entirely possible.

"You did kill your other sister right?"

"I'm not killing Ava unless she threatens to harm my family," he said, "so far she's kept her distance."

Carlos chuckled.

"Like I said…sounds like you're the one who's soft…talk to you later. It's been real."

Julian clicked off his phone. Carlos had been pretty amiable to him considering what had happened between him when his enforcer had made a mistake that couldn't go unpunished.

With that thought, he went to bed, glancing at Alexis' closed door as he passed it.

* * *

Alexis was bright and early going on a short run down the beach. She'd woken up before Julian did fortunately. She didn't remember exactly what happened last night but knew they'd had some words.

She remembered some of them, where she told him she just wanted to stick to the plan and get out of this so she could go back to her family and create some semblance of a new life. Maybe away from PC which was in the midst of a chaotic cleanup of the whole Mafia mess.

The water looked lovely today like diamonds sparkling on the surface and boats in the distance. She'd love to live on the coastline in a beach house though she loved her current home on the lake and missed it.

She was so mad at Julian or had been last night. It hadn't been Dianne riling her up either…what he'd done to her just ate away at her. But they had to work together so she had to be able to do that.

Sam and Danny would be coming up tomorrow for the day before meeting up with Spinelli. She looked forward to seeing them and she knew Julian did too. Whatever happened between them, she knew that he did deeply care for his daughter and grandson. As much as she'd been tempted she never did anything to keep them from exploring their own relationships. She'd never deny Sam her father no matter how angry she might be at him.

No not angry not like she had been earlier but something harder to deal with…more of a weariness that every time she'd trusted some guy to be good to her they always fell short of that.

She ran up to where there was a fish stand that sold pretty tasty crab sticks which she bought along with some mango juice. She sat at a small table watching the waves crash on the beach and then heard music on the radio.

Soft jazz which relaxed her. It really was a beautiful calm day…

"We interrupt our broadcast to deliver the following bulletin. The investigation by the FBI, ATF and U.S. Attorneys' office has reached a critical point and it's been told to us that there will be a joint probe into the Corinthos Coffee Importing corporation and related businesses under the Corinthos umbrella…This just in…there's an APB out on some of the known associates of Corinthos including his enforcer Shawn Butler and Maximus Giambetti as well as primary legal counsel Alexis Davis…"

Her body froze. Did she just hear that right? The feds put out an APB on her? Oh god, what was she going to do now?

She shouldn't be surprised with all the scrutiny Sonny had been facing and yet she thought that they might not look in her corner.

This couldn't be happening to her.

* * *

Julian frowned when he was on the phone with Coleman while eating his omelet and toast.

"You're kidding me. They really put an APB on a bunch of Corinthos' people including Alexis?"

Coleman sighed.

"Damn straight they did and it ticks me off. How could they treat her like a criminal? A foxy lady like her who knows how to shoot a good game of pool."

"Well she can't go back to PC now. We're going to have to stay here and figure it out."

Coleman chuckled.

"I'm sure she'll come up with a plan of action fast. She's always thinking on her feet. You know I have half the mind when this is all over to ask her out…"

Julian clenched his jaw.

"Yeah that'd work…start off with dinner and then shoot some pool…"

"Coleman so what else is happening in PC that we should know about besides the APBs?"

Coleman chuckled obviously amused at Julian right now.

"Not much…Sonny's still not going to see the inside of a jail cell for a while yet…he could still weasel his way out of it. Course he's wondering what the hell happened with his crack attorney."

"He can keep wondering…along with Shawn."

His mind begun working because he knew they had to come up with a plan and fast. Alexis might be angry with him now but it didn't matter.

He wasn't going to let anything to happen to her.


	26. Chapter 26

Alexis couldn't believe her ears. An APB had been put out for her by the Department of Justice and the FBI's task force against mobsters in PC. It's not like she'd never had APBs, warrants or whatever. She really should have expected it.

She had no intention of turning herself in or even being found by anyone looking for her. The whole situation had become a circus in PC and she planned to stay away for now. She jogged back to the beach house and no one seemed to look at her let alone recognize her on the fairly deserted beach so she felt better.

Until she approached the beach house because you know who was waiting there. God, she'd woken up this morning with dry mouth and nursing a bit of a hangover. What had Dianne put in the damn margaritas anyway?

She knew what Dianne had been trying to do…to get information out of her as though she had rekindled her friendship with Dianne, she didn't entirely trust her.

Any more than the man inside the house.

* * *

_She bumped into Dianne at the courthouse hallway, while sipping her coffee and trying to get her game face on…which was difficult because she had mixed feelings about taking this case. She couldn't say no to family and though Lulu wasn't related to her she was Nikolas' half-sister. Then with Dante being Sonny's son, she said fine as long as his mother Olivia kept any sudden psychic visions to herself. _

_The one about Connie's murder had been unnerving enough. _

_Anyway she thought she was prepared. She knew she had a much tougher legal battle to fight than Dianne. She also knew how much the Press loved writing her rival up well. _

"_Hi Alexis…"_

_She smiled at the other attorney. _

"_Hello Dianne…"_

_Neither giving anything away to give the other person any edge. Politeness and small talk would be the order before the gloves came off inside that courtroom. _

"_How are things going with Danny?"_

_Alexis smiled. _

"_Great…he's home with Sam now and doing very well."_

_Dianne nodded then made a face. _

"_I had the date from Hell the other night…god…sometimes I think I'd want to give up on men entirely and then I see the next good looking guy…"_

_Alexis could relate sometimes. _

"_Anyone I know?"_

_Dianne made a face. _

"_Franco…but it's not like it sounds really. I was doing him a favor…see I was helping him make another woman jealous. One he fancies but I made sure before I agreed to it I'd be paid handsomely for my services."_

_Alexis looked puzzled. _

"_Make someone jealous? Why would such an odious creature like Franco…"_

"_Hey, he had that brain tumor."_

_Alexis sighed. _

"_Dianne, been there done that so…."_

"_I know but anyway apparently he's got a thing for Carly Jax. God knows why…I never got how she attracted men to here like honey to flies…"_

"_More like carrion to flies…"_

_Dianne smiled. _

"_Oh Alexis I love this side of you…"_

"_Carly's not my favorite person in the world."_

"_Yeah well, she was dating some guy that's new in town…."_

_Alexis had to snicker. _

"_Figures…who's the unsuspecting mark?"_

"_He's a publisher named Derek Wells…"_

* * *

Alexis reached the porch of the house and walked inside. She saw Julian by the computer. He glanced at her.

"Alexis…you're back."

She nodded.

"Yeah I heard on the radio there's an APB out on me. I'm going to be subpoenaed for the grand jury on Sonny's case."

"It appears…just reading the latest headlines from my…newspaper."

"Oh what do they say?"

"They have an old courtroom photo from you and it's about you being sought by authorities."

She glanced over his shoulder at it.

"That's my photo from that custody case with baby Connie…not too long ago."

He smiled.

"No…I sat in and watched part of it."

She narrowed her eyes.

"You did?"

He nodded, turning to face her.

"Yeah I wanted to see if you lived up to all the hype," he said, "Heard you had one hell of a reputation."

She almost smiled.

"You did? What'd you think?"

He paused.

"If I told you I might wound up sitting outside a locked door before I could finish."

She just looked at him, hand on a hip.

"Okay…Julian Jerome playing it safe…then tell me the rest."

He took a deep breath.

"You're one hell of an attorney."

"I know…Dianne…"

"She had the easier battle to fight. It was all uphill for you."

She nodded.

"Well the Press…your press..."

"I didn't write the article and if I did, some of it wouldn't have been fit to print."

Oh that made her heart quicken in a familiar way but damn if he'd see her falling into an old trap.

"What does that mean anyway? I mean you were involved in that whole…Carly…Franco…whatever you'd call it with a straight face at the time?"

'Oh that…"

"Yeah that…I don't get it. But when I realized that you and Carly…were seeing each other. It didn't surprise me because that's what always happens. I hate to tell you this but you're not exactly a novelty."

"Alexis…"

"Hey I'm not being judgmental. I'm just saying that I'm not surprised. You just were doing what every other man does with her."

"It was quid pro quo…part of getting my objective…"

"Oh yeah right. The mobster war….the one that the feds just ended…the one I fed you info for without realizing it. Seems to me you didn't get much out of it after all that planning certainly not what you wanted."

He sighed.

"Seems to me that I did though it wasn't what I'd been looking for…"

She softened.

"You did get two children. Even though one of them wishes no contact with you."

"Lucas…"

The emotion in his voice, a lifetime of regret like there'd been about Sam. For all his faults, the man loved his children.

"That might change with time…giving him space was a wise decision even if it wasn't an easy one."

He digested that.

"Yeah not much choice there. At least Sam's reaching out to him."

She put a hand on his shoulder.

"Sam and I…when I found out she was my daughter we weren't friends. But it doesn't mean it'll stay that way forever. It takes work and time but also patience."

"Thanks…"

She sighed.

"But this thing with you and Carly on the other hand? Franco? I guess I'm glad I missed most of that but I was pretty busy at the time."

"Yes you were...but we've had her moments."

"Yes we have…I'm getting something to eat," she said, "Don't we have to talk to Coleman later and Sam's coming tomorrow with Danny."

He smiled at that as she walked into the kitchen.

She turned on the TV while making up some salad from greens and some baked chicken to eat. That and an iced tea would suit her just fine.

"_This is Dawson Fuller of PC Live," the man said, "and here's Shawn Butler and his friend…Carly Jax here to put up a reward on the recovery of runaway bride Alexis Davis…"_

_She looked straight at the TV. Good God, what was Shawn up to now?_

"_I'm just hoping that someone, anyone's seen her some place. Ever since…my wedding date, I've been worried about her safety…and her emotional wellbeing…I think she's suffering a mental lapse and no doubt Mr. Jerome a wanted mobster kingpin is exploiting her for his own gain."_

_Dawson sighed. _

"_Fascinating…what about you Mr. Butler? Is it true that you've just been subpoenaed to appear before the grand jury in association with Sonny Corinthos' operation?"_

_Shawn frowned. _

"_I'm not a mobster. I'm a businessman now. This is merely because of information I might possess from that past chapter in my life when I was horribly misguided into a life of crime. I will be vindicated but in the meantime I need to find my bride to be…" _

_Carly spoke up. _

"_She's not much but since Shawn seems to care about her, I'm helping him find her_…"

Alexis raised a brow. Since when had Carly ever given a damn about her? She shut off the television wondering what to do next


End file.
